ABSTRACT
Introduction The contributions to a discourse theory of human rights developed in this book start out from Habermas’ idea that we need to analyze the role of political rights in relation to language and action. By placing political rights in the forefront it is assumed that we open up alternative possibilities for approaching the general human rights discourse and the tension between different types of rights. The aim of this chapter and the following two chapters is to elucidate what my version of a discourse theory of human rights looks like and how it diverges from Habermas’ discourse theory of democracy. My version of a discourse theory constitutes two parts, action and institution, and whereas this chapter and the next focuses on the conditions of action, Chapter Five concentrates on the conditions of institution.
