From rationality to reasonability: the development of John Rawls’s conception of deliberative democracy
Democracy. Deliberation. Democratic Theory. Rationality. Reasonableness.
Deliberative democracy is an aspect of the decision-making process by citizens, considered equal and free, in political society. In the work of John Rawls, deliberative democracy – well-ordered democracy or well-ordered constitutional democracy – is presented as a way out of the pluralism of interests, emerging from the variety of philosophical and religious conceptions that exist in a well-ordered society. This diversity of interests generates irreconcilable conflicts, but which can be mitigated by deliberative rationality and, later, by reasonability, thus allowing the maintenance of mutual cooperation and the realization of justice as equity. The aim of this project is to investigate the maturation of the idea of deliberative rationality towards reasonableness, as well as the bases for this change of position.