John Rawls's view on the political culture of a democratic society

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the role of the political culture of a democratic society within Rawls's later work. In the first part of the paper we analyze Rawls's standpoint as presented in his Political Liberalism. According to Rawls, the political culture of a democratic society is a source of ideas and principles that are the building blocks of political theory aiming at the political conception of justice for a well-ordered democratic society. In the rest of the paper, we raise some objections concerning the relationship between the political culture of a democratic society and political theory. Finally, we sketch our own view on the proper role of normative political theory.