About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

8 Ratio Juris 1 (1995)

handle is hein.journals/raju8 and id is 1 raw text is: Ratio Juris. Vol. 8 No. 1 March 1995 (1-8) Democracy and Disagreement ALAIN BOYER Abstract. According to Popper's critical rationalism, the possibility of disagreement is at the heart of open societies. If this is assumed to be true, is it not illiberal to try to justify principles of justice, which can be regarded as the subject of an unending collective deliberation? I suggest that it is not, using an analogy with scientific progress. Moreover, I try to show that Rawls's achievement is misunderstood if one forgets that it is supposed to overcome the antinomy between la libert6 des Modemes and la libert des Anciens. In this respect, I insist on some unnoticed similarities between Rawls's and Popper's points of views. I conclude on the idea of the neutrality of the theory of justice, suggesting a link between Rawls's approach and the French republican tradition. Some people are currently discussing the problem of consensus in the liberal framework, as if the collective agreement on values was insufficiently settled in our modem societies, and as if that fact was responsible for the crisis of the liberal (and social) democracies.' Certain philosophers seem to be calling for a restoration of a warmer community which alone could save us from the excesses of individualistic ethics, and more generally from what Sir Karl Popper in the Forties called the strain of civilization and the abstract society. I will not deny that some form of (overlapping) consensus on rules and values is a necessary condition of the peaceful management or treatment of social problems, particularly those of coordination and cooperation, but I submit that there must also be a space of possible disagreement.2 One of the characteristics of open societies is the substitution of the conflict of ideas for the violent confrontation of groups with vested interests. Nevertheless, I would like to argue that the character of politics as an everlasting conflict should remain. Too much dissent leads to the risk of civil war; but too much consensus can lead to a more subtle death of liberal democracy, for instance to the famous tyranny of the majority forcefully described and denounced I First, I wish to thank Sir Karl Popper very much for his helpful observations on a previous version of this text; I would also like to thank Adam Stephenson and Mark Cladis for their relevant remarks. 2 Cf. Popper 1976. 0 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1995, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most