Darrow Schecter explores the most important theoretical and political debates about the relation between reason and legitimacy.

Democracy in the twenty-first century faces a number of major challenges, populism, neoliberalism and globalisation being three of the most prominent. This book examines such challenges by investigating how the conditions of democratic statehood have been altered at several key historical intervals since 1945. It demonstrates that the formal mechanisms of democratic statehood, such as elections, have always been complemented by civic, cultural, educational, socio-economic and constitutional institutions that mediate between citizens and state authority. Rearticulating critical theory with a contemporary (...) focus, the book shows why a sociological approach is urgently needed to address conceptual deficits and explain how the formal mechanisms of democratic statehood need to be complemented and updated in new ways today. (shrink)

This article sets out to show that it is more precise to speak of different liberal traditions than it is to speak of liberalism in general. The argument is pursued by showing how contrary to French liberalism, which has a strong republican element, and in contrast with English and Scottish liberalism, which reserve an important place for political economy, there is also a central European liberalism with a marked philosophical dimension. This particular form of liberalism is analysed by examining the (...) writings of Kant, Simmel and Freud. It is stated at the outset that critiques of liberalism often fail to appreciate the richness and diversity of liberal thinking, and that this depth must be borne in mind in any effective critique. It is explained that there are indeed grounds to critique liberal thought and practice, but that these grounds are obscured by lumping distinct and heterogeneous traditions together as if they all suffered from the same defects. (shrink)

This paper looks at key points of convergence and divergence in Hegel and Adorno on the question of the dialectics of humanity and nature as these unfold in institutions. Bearing in mind the distinct historical periods in which they worked, particular attention is paid to the ways in which their respective epistemologies deliver very different assessments of social and political life in modern societies. This is illustrated by contrasting Hegel's notion of recognition with the utopian dimension of Adorno's ideas on (...) non-identity and mimetic reconciliation. It is shown that in opposition to those who regard Adorno exclusively as a philosopher and aesthetic theorist, his ideas have social and juridical relevance, as well as continuing resonance in the history of political thought. (shrink)