Suchergebnisse

Contemporary readers have largely interpreted Kant's political philosophy as a piece of classical liberalism, challenging earlier receptions, which straightforwardly emphasized its legacy with the French revolution and stressed the revolutionary potential of Kant's republicanism. Discussing Kant's political writings analytically, this paper aims to reshape in positive terms his dealings with (modern) democracy. It defends the thesis according to which the philosopher, as it appears in the essay Toward Perpetual Peace, claims for a democratic version of republicanism. Nonetheless, Kant's ʻideal theory' of politics and the state, by which a just order would be established, harshly criticizes the ʻancient' concept of democracy as it merely identifies a form of despotism. Thus, Kantian democratic reform of republicanism illuminates his normative project, which merging liberalism and democracy favors the promotion of the rights of men, universal citizenship as well as individual liberty.