Navigating Plural Identities in the South African Participatory Democracy: A Reformed Grammar for Public Dialogue

Abstract

Participatory democracies find it increasingly difficult to navigate the diverse voices within the public realm because of the rapid pluralisation of modern societies. Contemporary political discourses in South Africa on issues such as land redistribution are a vivid reminder of this. This essay asks, how do we ensure that public discourse between civil groups and governmental agencies remains constructive and conducive to the framing of good policies? How do we avoid the poisonous and brutal verbal wars that often captivate the public realm? I argue that social actors who engage in policy formation need a moral grammar, a shared attitude, an ethos of social discourse that sets the basic parameters for public deliberations. In an effort to develop such a grammar and to contribute to some agreement on the matter, we have to draw from positive resources in our religious, political and philosophical traditions. Utilising resources within the Reformed tradition, I claim that public discourse is a form of symbiotics, a ‘gifts exchange’, where social imaginaries trade resources, goods and capacities considered as useful and necessary to the common benefit of all. Moral public deliberations require participants to display the attitudes of respect for human dignity and principled toleration. Lastly, the essay identifies truth-seeking and public justice as the basic commitments that ought to guide political deliberations. The article concludes by applying the proposed moral grammar to the South African setting.