The Two Faces of Democracy by Mary F. Scudder;Stephen K. White;

Author:Mary F. Scudder;Stephen K. White;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
Published: 2023-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

5

Re-envisioning the Core of Democracy

A full comprehension of democracy must encompass what we have called its two faces. As we have shown, however, neither the deliberative nor the agonistic approaches seem capable, by themselves, of accommodating the full range of values that emerge from the intuitive draw of these two faces. A more adequate approach must clarify the value of reason and civil discussion, on the one hand, and contention and conflict, on the other hand, as well as show how they are interwoven. In order to move toward that goal, we will have to think in a fashion that substantially decenters the claims of both deliberation and agonism. In the former case, the need for rethinking arises from the accumulation of serious challenges, both internal and external, to its prevailing self-understanding of the character and role of deliberation in political life. In the latter, a comparable deficiency arises from a failure to provide a better accounting of the values of equality and autonomy to which it tacitly appeals as sources for the moderation of the slide toward unmitigated conflict. In both cases, rectifying these deficiencies requires a better account of the moral core of democratic life.1 Only after that has been provided will we have an adequate grasp of why we feel the orienting force of both faces of democracy: the one displaying the hold on our intuition of scenes of speaking, listening, debating, arguing, and voting; and the other displaying the hold of scenes of protest and resistance to undemocratic forces.

What would a better articulation of the ethical-political core of democracy look like? An effective answer to this question must proceed on two levels. Obviously, it requires an account of exactly what we take this core to be. But for that sketch to be plausible, we must first clarify what the very idea of such a foundation in our present “post-foundational” world can mean. In short, what sort of character and validity could it have? How should political reflection today understand its most originary gestures both in regard to their conceptual claims and to their sources of affective force? Only after such general questions have been addressed, can we then proceed to tackle the specific one of sketching a basis for our communicative model of democracy. In this chapter we take on the former task, while in Chapter 6 we tackle the latter.

There exists today a distinct presumption, often operating implicitly, that reflection on political life must proceed in a “post-foundational” sense; that is, there is no longer a universal belief in a strong ontological, moral-religious basis for political life, such as the one that sustained Locke’s thinking. The prefix “post” implies for many today that we are somehow beyond such matters, in the sense that we no longer need to be bothered with carefully discussing things on this terrain of what used to be called “foundations.” This aversion, avoidance, or reticence in regard to foundational issues can be seen in a variety of maneuvers. Consider, for example,

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