Habermas and the Social Goods

Abstract

In this article I will address the question of the place of communitarian goods in Habermas' social vision. Habermas' social theory in many ways represents an advance over other theories on the left in its attention to democratic structure, ethical theory and law. It is the best argued contemporary account on the left of a social and political vision in which democracy holds center stage. The tenacity of the argument is matched by its depth and breadth. Unlike other writers who have spoken recently for democracy, e.g., Mouffe and Laclau, Habermas grounds his argument in an ethical theory. One can only applaud a theory that respects diversity, refuses to presume there could be a single voice that speaks for all of us, and refuses to deny the complexity of the modern world or to capitulate to the demands of experts to rule over us. The demand for a thorough-going democracy is also timely because of the serious erosion of democracy in the country that has stood for that very political ideal, the contemporary United States. All this notwithstanding, the real question that has to be raised is: is democracy enough? Can everything that is of worth in the socialist vision be incorporated in this good? My claim in this essay is that it is not enough. My argument is that the communitarian dimension is excluded in Habermas' ethical theory, that it is different from a demand for democracy, and that Habermas' own ethical theory is at odds with this further demand.