HABERMAS AND FOUCAULT - THINKERS FOR CIVIL-SOCIETY

Taken together, the works of Jurgen Habermas and Michel Foucault highl ight an essential tension in modernity. This is the tension between th e normative and the real, between what should be done and what is actu ally done. Understanding this tension is crucial to understanding mode rn democracy, what it is and what it could be. It has been argued that an effective way of making democracy stronger is to strengthen civil society. This article contains a comparative analysis of the central i deas of Habermas and Foucault as they pertain to the question of democ racy and civil society. More specifically, the discourse ethics of Hab ermas is contrasted with the power analytics and ethics of Foucault ev aluating their usefulness for those interested in understanding, and b ringing about, democratic social change.