Stručni rad
Civil society and constitutional democracy in the political liberalism of John Rawls
Luka Juroš
Sažetak
The essay argues for explicit inclusion of civil society into Rawlsʼs system of political liberalism. It identifies three problems in Rawlsʼs system and then using the definitions of civil society by Keane, Taylor, Gellner and Rosenblum presents the opportunities for their
solution. The first problem is the one of stability of democratic systems, which Rawls solved by introducing overlapping consensus. The essay argues that Rawls does not sufficiently account for the dynamics of the interaction between reasonable doctrines, which can
conceivably result in the withdrawal of support for the current political conception of justice if the citizensʼ representatives too often ignore the views of too many reasonable doctrines. The second problem is the one of unreasonable doctrines: Rawls plans that they be kept under check by legal mechanisms, but does not elaborate on how their activities can be supervised. The final problem is the one of the (re)creation of public reason, in which Rawls offers insufficient means through which the public can influence the actions of law-makers, the judiciary and state officials. The essay identifies the elements of the definitions of civil society that address the three problems and concludes that Rawlsʼs system would be made
stronger by the introduction of civil society.
Ključne riječi
constitutional democracy; civil society; stability; reasonable and unreasonable doctrines; public reason; democratic participation; political liberalism
Hrčak ID:
3827
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.9.2005.
Posjeta: 2.809 *