Negotiating identities. On identity politics and deliberation

Abstract

ABSTRACT The rights of discriminated ethnic groups and migrants has become an increasingly relevant factor in politics. A frequent claim here is that only discriminated groups can speak about their discrimination. In its ultimate consequence, deliberation between minorities and majorities thereby becomes impossible. This problem has not been discussed in depth in literature on cultural group rights or on deliberative democracy. These issues will be discussed on a theoretical level based on theories of deliberative democracy, and on the thought of Spivak and Butler on the exclusion of minorities. The paper proposes an understanding of democracy not based on a pre-defined national people but recognizing the multitude of identity constructions in contemporary democracies. Democratic deliberation cannot take its starting point from an assumed common rationality or common interests but from the fiction of the possibility to understand each other. This enables temporary alliances striving for a common democratic horizon.