The Inclusion of the Other contains Habermas's most recentwork in political theory and political philosophy. Here Habermaspicks up some of the central themes of Between Facts andNorms and elaborates them in relation to current politicaldebates.
One of the distinctive features of Habermas's work has been itsapproach to the problem of political legitimacy through a sustainedreflection on the dual legitimating and regulating function ofmodern legal systems. Extending his discourse theory of normativevalidity to the legal-political domain, Habermas has defended aproceduralist conception of deliberative democracy in which theburden of legitimating state power is borne by informal and legallyinstitutionalized processes of political deliberation. Its guidingintuition is the radical democratic idea that there is an internalrelation between the rule of law and popular sovereignty. In theseessays he brings this discursive and proceduralist analysis ofpolitical legitimacy to bear on such urgent contemporary issues asthe enduring legacy of the welfare state, the future of the nationstate, and the prospects of a global politics of human rights.
This book will be essential reading for students and academicsin sociology and social theory, politics and political theory,philosophy and the social sciences generally.