Habermasian Thinking on Civil Society and the Public Sphere in the Age of Globalization |
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Authors: | Salvador Santino F. Regilme Jr. |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Political Science, De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines;2. Department of Political Science, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, USA;3. K?te Hamburger Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germanysantino.regilme@gmail.com |
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Abstract: | ABSTRACTIn today's age of increasing globalization and the emergence of global public policy issues, the concepts of civil society, public sphere, and the legitimacy of the legal system require further analytical scrutiny and philosophical reflection. As such, this article reflects on how the renowned German philosopher and social theorist Jürgen Habermas, in his Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy (1996), addressed and reflected on the notions of civil society, the public sphere, and the legitimacy of the legal system. As Habermas admitted that barriers do exist within the civil society and the public sphere, the article examines the various ways of overcoming the barriers toward the full actualization of the civil society's emancipatory potential. The article shows its conceptual arguments through the use of empirical examples vis-à-vis the arguments of Habermas, and most importantly, that Habermasian insights need to be cast at the transnational level of democratic politics, rather than within the strict confines of political processes within the nation-state. |
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