ABSTRACT
The political and social thoughts of Jürgen Habermas and Chantal Mouffe are usually opposed to each other. They both give good reasons to set their concepts against each other in this way as well. In The Democratic Paradox (2000) Mouffe strongly criticizes Habermas’s “procedural” theory of the democratic system. According to her, it relies on the naïve assumption that the political competition and struggle within this system goes on in the form of rational arguing and is oriented at reaching agreement or consensus. Opposing this view, she maintains that the political discourse in modern democracies assumes mainly the form of agon and has its roots in the deeply antagonistic social relations. Consequently, the party (parties) that is in power does not negotiate its program with the opposing parties but simply realizes it and imposes its political will on the adversaries.
