• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Democratic Theory with Critical Intent: Reply to Newey
  • Contributor: O'Neill, Shane
  • Published: SAGE Publications, 2002
  • Published in: The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 4 (2002) 1, Seite 98-114
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1111/1467-856x.41072
  • ISSN: 1369-1481; 1467-856X
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: My critical assessment of competing views on the marching controversy at Drumcree is found wanting by Glen Newey for at least three reasons. The Habermasian approach I adopt is alleged to be motivationally deficient, politically ineffectual and blind to its own decisionistic partiality. Here I indicate that the force of Newey's critique is neutralised once one attends to the important differences between Habermas' moral theory and his discourse theory of law and democracy. I argue, furthermore, that Newey's critique is insufficiently attuned to the institutional context of my argument, and that his line of reasoning has troubling political implications.