English
Język Polski
John Rawls's theory of deliberative democracy
Abstract
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The scientific aim is to present a specific role of John Rawls that he played in co-creation of the concept of deliberative democracy.
THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: Deliberative democracy focuses on deliberation that should bring in-depth knowledge of the participants in a given matter as well as the awareness of other individuals’ interests. One must acquire knowledge of the distinction between public reason and many non-public reasons, and at the same time be impartial to the points of view of vast rational doctrines. The research method is based on text analysis.
THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The article begins with an attempt to synthetically analyse Rawls’s contractualistic proposition in order to “organise the state well”. Then, there follows an analysis of the concept of justice as impartiality indicating the basis for creating the theory of deliberative democracy. The focus is put on Rawls’s innovative solution – the reflection of balance can only be achieved through the result of a certain structure (construction) and the normative nature of his proposition was indicated, which distinguishes this concept from predecessors asking similar questions.
RESEARCH RESULTS: In his attempts to construct a “machine of reason” and a “game of reason”, and finally an “original situation” from which the principles of justice as impartiality can be derived, John Rawls attempted to create a model of a reasonable deliberation by democratic citizens in a way that could awake their loyalty towards the established order.
CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: In the conclusions, the author points out that the assumption of common public reason and rational pluralism, as well as the idea of freedom as the ability to have higher moral powers, lead Rawls to create “good state organisation”, where the deliberative formula of democracy must play a key role.
Keywords
John Rawls ; deliberative democracy ; impartiality ; the original situation ; public reason
Details
References
Indicators
Authors
Zasady cytowania
Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a CC BY-ND licence that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are asked to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). We advise to use any of the following reserach society portals: