Habermas on the Legitimacy of Law in Pluralist Societies

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Authors

Abstract

On what principles the legitimacy of law could be based in societies with pluralist worldviews, where all the members of the society do not have necessarily the same beliefs, values, and interests that the law could be rationally accepted by all population with reference to them? This study tries to examine the problem of legitimacy of law in the contemporary pluralistic societies from Habermas' point of view. The attempts by Habermas to provide a post-metaphysical justification for the normative foundations of democratic state based on the constitution will be effective only when he defend the "democratic process" as the only reliable way of legitimate establishment of rights. In this way, he introduces the "modern statute" as the normative binding of pluralist society and the factor by which the solidarity of citizens in this condition will be maintained. In his plan to meet the requirements of political legitimacy by simultaneous use of private and public autonomy in a mutual relationship, Habermas pass through the liberalism and republicanism traditions in political philosophy.

Keywords