On Political Disobedience, Violent but Civil

This is a post by Andrei Bespalov (Pompeu Fabra University).

Political liberals put great value in political autonomy, which, in their view, makes it necessary for citizens to justify their preferred political decisions and actions to one another on the grounds of reasons that all of them may reasonably be expected to accept. Under the conditions of deep moral, religious, and philosophical disagreements, these proper public reasons should not rely on comprehensive doctrines that define what makes human life good as a whole. Instead, they should only draw on common sense, uncontroversial science, and liberal political conceptions of justice, such as John Rawls’s justice as fairness.

Is More Diversity Better for Public Reason?

This is a post by Andrei Bespalov (Pompeu Fabra University).

In liberal democracies, citizens must respect one another as free and equal partners in self-government. According to public reason liberals, the idea of civic respect entails that policies can be enforced by the state only if they are reasonably justified to all citizens. But what should count as a reasonable justification in a public whose members disagree with one another on the basic matters of morality, philosophy, and religion?