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A fil rouge goes through Habermas's decade long research. It is the idea that Reason and rationality permeate human societies and may lead human action towards emancipation, if aptly elaborated through the filter of theoretical reflection. Theory must pick up on this rational core and turn the intrinsic rational potential inherent to modern societies into a self-consciously pursued 'project of enlightenment'. This introduction to the special issue 'Habermas, Democracy, and the Public Sphere: Theory and Practice' shows how Habermas's work in different scientific domains contributes to the construction of the 'project of modernity' from the many angles that such a complex project requires. The public sphere is, in Habermas's theory, the societal domain in which communicative interactions have a chance to make Reason come to bear on human societies and lead them on the path to social and political emancipation. The contributions to this special issue focus therefore on the public sphere and illustrate the evolution of the concept in Habermas's work and its relation to democracy at national and supranational level.

What principles of political justice ought to apply to the European Union? This question is particularly relevant considering the deepening integration process that resulted from the crises of the past decade. Habermas's conception of a transnational democracy allows identification of the methodological components of transnational political justice: to unite in a transnational polity, people belonging to different national communities need a common purpose ( finalité), principles governing the distribution of constitutional and legislative power and a common political infrastructure that allows them to form democratic will as free and equal citizens. This article attempts to further expand these points through a public goods approach. European policies generate European public goods. These must be produced and accessed based on a fair cooperation scheme. Identifying these specific fairness conditions allows further clarification on how legislative and constitutional power ought to be distributed within the European polity.

UID/FIL/00183/2013 ; The euro and sovereign debt crisis is both a conflict of political and economic interests and a conflict of interpretations. Two narratives struggle for hegemony in the European ideological imaginary. Each calls for a different mode of crisis management, and each represents a different vision of the single currency, European economic and monetary policy, and European integration as a whole. Each presents different theses on the origins and causes of the crisis, as well as its solution. As important as it is to know which narrative provides a correct interpretation of the crisis in macroeconomic and monetary terms, both remain insufficient when it comes to solving the political and ethical conundrum facing Eurozone governance and the management of the sovereign debt crisis. In fact, both paradigms mirror the economic and political interests and legitimate ethical expectations from the standpoint of which their proponents approach European integration. To understand these expectations, it is therefore necessary to enquire into the conditions of fairness that might allow for legitimate crisis management. The paper attempts to do so while also presenting a model of democratic governance for the EMU. ; publishersversion ; published

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Nationalism and Global Justice: A Survey of Some Challenges -- Cosmopolitanism: Cultural, Moral, and Political -- Arguing for Justice. Global Justice and Philosophical Argumentation -- Global and Statist Egalitarianism and Their Woes -- What is so Special about the State? -- On the Applicability of the Ideal of Equality of Opportunity at the Global Level -- Against Relational Views of Justice and Parental Duties -- Cosmopolitanism, Sovereignty and Global Justice -- On Kant's Aesthetics and his Progressing Treatment of Peace. -- Rawls' via media: Between Realism and UtopianismRawls's The Law of Peoples as a Guideline for the World as We Know It -- Towards Fair Terms of Economic Cooperation -- Whip Cosmopolitanism into Shape: Assessing Thomas Pogge's Global Resources Dividend as an Instrument of Global Justice -- Backmatter.