A democratic diagnosis of the present
In this article, I present a Habermas-inspired «radical democratic» sociological diagnosis of the present. Starting off from his theory of communicative action, I attempt to show how the rationality, freedom and equality inherent in linguistically mediated interaction may be institutionalized society-wide through what I call the democratic power circuit. Outlining what I take to be the three most salient structural characteristics of modern societies (functional differentiation, social stratification, and individualization), I then discuss some important barriers to modern democracy. Nevertheless, through invoking the democratic power circuit, I argue that members of modern societies may at least potentially overcome these barriers. In this way, I hope to present a moderately optimistic sociological defence of modern democracy, thereby counteracting some of the pessimism on the part of modernity often encountered in the sociological discourse of modernity.