ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors turn to consider developments in contemporary critical theory, notably Axel Honneth’s theory of disrespect and recognition as well as theories of discursive democracy. The ideas of reason and rationality, fundamental to the tradition of classical social theory, had come under fire through the most daring social critique with the Frankfurt School. A concern with the sociological distinction between the public sphere and private life has been fundamental to Habermas’s social theory from his earliest published writings. During the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Habermas became increasingly preoccupied with addressing the social conditions of rational decision-making and of delineating the conditions under which communicative argumentation and debate might best flourish in modern societies. As cultural awareness of the immense possibilities and threats of globalization accelerated throughout the 1990s, Habermas began renewed reflection on the conditions and consequences of democracy in a world where transnational forms of liberal democratic decision-making are increasingly viable and necessary.
