Political liberalism, deliberative democracy, and the public sphere
By: CHARNEY, Evan
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ArticlePublisher: New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, March 1998American Political Science Review 92, 1, p. 97-110Abstract: In this article I shall argue for just such a limited liberal conception of the public sphere as presented in the work of Rawls. This more limited conception actually better serves to guarantee the autonomy of associational life within civil society and its independence from the coercive powers of the state (or, for that matter, from the "coercive power" of normative political theory). My purpose is in no way to question the significance of associational life either for the process of democratic will formation or for its role in instilling the various norms associated with democratic citizenship, that is, its value as social capital. Rather, it is to argue for the value of a principled liberal distinction between the public and the private.
In this article I shall argue for just such a limited liberal conception of the public sphere as presented in the work of Rawls. This more limited conception actually better serves to guarantee the autonomy of associational life within civil society and its independence from the coercive powers of the state (or, for that matter, from the "coercive power" of normative political theory). My purpose is in no way to question the significance of associational life either for the process of democratic will formation or for its role in instilling the various norms associated with democratic citizenship, that is, its value as social capital. Rather, it is to argue for the value of a principled liberal distinction between the public and the private.
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