ABSTRACT
Cultural pluralism is an undisputable fact for most countries today. Cultural identities encompassed within the borders of each state have become, not only more pluralized and diversified but also more vocal and thus more visible. The various cultural identifications of citizens constitute the net of ‘nodal points’ against which the ethical-political discourses and, with that, an interpretation and re-interpretation of their self-understanding is negotiated and renegotiated. Ethical-political decisions are an unavoidable part of common debates, and therefore present a two-sided challenge to participants. For the political system ought to increase the opportunities of all citizens to participate equally in shaping the institutional/legal framework of political community as a whole without endangering individual freedom of choice. In contrast, J. Habermas defines the cohesion and integration of political community as grounded primarily in the democratic interpretation of the constitutional principles: as a cohesion which depends upon a common political culture and not upon an ethical-cultural form of life as a whole.
