Moar Habermas

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Habermas's own discussion of a concrete political agenda includes recommendations for increased decentralization in order to allow pluralistic decisionmaking. Decentralization also serves to counteract the "generation of mass loyalty" sought (and increasingly, he believes, achieved) by mass institutions such as political parties and states.

Ref to KENNETH BAYNES, THE NORMATIVE GROUNDS OF SOCIAL CRITICISM 109 (1992) 179-80.

x-devonthink-item://4EFBE3F1-1988-414A-870E-44F21A17B8EA?page=17

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Most relevant portion of Baynes:

Habermas does not argue that the formal political system, together with is mass political parties, should simply be replaced by a more highly decentralized form of democratic rule based solely on such secondary institutions. What he insists upon, rather, is that the former relinquish one of their functions--the generation of mass loyalty.63 In complex modern societies, proposals for more highly decentralized and pluralistic decision making processes encounter two specific sorts of difficulties: On the one hand, they threaten to undermine concern for the common good on a broad territorial scale or the preservation of basic rights and liberties. These are the "mischiefs of faction" described by Madison in the Federalist Papers. On the other hand, they would also most likely weaken the possibility for accountable decision making with respect to any large-scale problems that arise within modern societies.64 Thus, rather than calling for the dismantling of the formal political system, Habermas has instead spoken of the need for secondary associations of the public sphere to surround and "besiege" it, without however conquering it.65 Although this metaphor is not particularly instructive for identifying the specific modes of exchange that should exist between institutions of the public sphere and the state, the basic intuition is relatively clear: The informal associations within civil society responsible for the production of solidarity should exercise an indirect influence upon the formal political system through the production of loyalties and legitimations; at the same time, however, the political system, including its territorially based form of representation, should provide appropriate mechanisms for accountable decision making and guarantee adequate concern for the common good of the republic as a whole.

This can also be seen as an argument against excessive decentralisation.

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Closing in favour of #49.