Acceso usuarios
Trieste, Italia
This article analyzes the significance of the norm in the conceptions of Max Weber, sociologist and author of the classical work Economy and Society, and of Jürgen Habermas, philosopher and sociologist of the Frankfurt School. Both authors have in fact dedicated specific studies to the sociology of right and have conferred a central function on the norms in order to guarantee a correct functioning of parliamentary democracy. For Weber and Habermas, the norm exists in a constitutive tension between facticity and normativity, i.e. between its factual influence on society and its theoretical legitimacy. Weber distinguishes between the juridicial and the sociological meaning of the norm, which is respectively related to its normative value and to its effects on society. For Habermas, the norm is adhered to, but it also has to be legitimized, and this can only be reached as a consequence of a democratic debate that produces consensus. In the political sphere, Weber and Habermas stress the importance of an interaction between legality and political discussion, democratic procedures and their process of institutionalization, thus emphasizing the necessity of guaranteeing a political debate subject to rules. Nevertheless, their ideas of democracy partially differ. Weber conceives of a democracy based on a majority, whereas Habermas stresses the necessity of reaching an agreement. This article analyzes the different models of democracy articulated by Weber and Habermas, their significance, and the possibility of integration between them.
