Paper's abstract

Dominique & Hervé Leydet & Pourtois, Pluralism and Conflict in the Contemporary Theories of Democrac
In this article, we highlight and discuss certain assumptions in political theory and philosophy as to what constitutes a salient conflict for theories of democracy. Which aspects of a social conflict call for a response through democratic procedures and what are the conditions that such procedures must sa-tisfy? In the first section, we consider descriptive theories of democracy; in the second, we focus on theories that are explicitly normative, in particular those associated with the deliberative model of democracy. This discussion, in turn, draws attention to the negative effect of the contemporary understanding of pluralism as purely moral or identity related, namely a reductive inter-preta-tion of political and social struggles as disputes over resource allocation, ma-nageable through fair bargaining. In the third and last section, we explore a potential solution to this impasse through a discussion of Axel Honneth’s re-cent attempt at reconstructing a ‘moral grammar’ of social conflicts, in parti-cular redistributive conflicts. In spite of its weaknesses, this theory gives us tools to better grasp the conditions of their just treatment.

Key Words : democraty, conflict, redistribution
t. 49 : 2005, p. 47-68

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