What’s Left? Democratic Theory in Between Facts and Norms After Three Decades

This essay revisits my earlier 1999 critique (Between Radicalism and Resignation: Democratic Theory in Habermas’ ,Between Facts and Norms‘) of Habermas’ most important contribution to political and legal theory. Some of my criticisms stemmed from a failure to address the book’s complicated attempt to navigate between ,facts‘ and ,norms‘, and thus Habermas’ vision of ,rational reconstruction‘. Nonetheless, I argue that key elements of that original criticism not only remain pertinent, but that they can help us understand lacunae within Habermas’ more recent contributions to a critical theory of politics. First, my worries about Habermas’ apparent marginalization of systematic Kapitalismuskritik have been corroborated by his more recent writings. Second, there is no question that Habermas borrowed heavily from the democratic theory developed by Bernhard Peters, an important interlocutor for Habermas in the Frankfurt legal theory study group he coordinated during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Habermas’ debts to Peters have continued to shape his thinking. While they have helped Habermas pursue some productive analytic paths, others, unfortunately, have consequently been neglected.