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Habermas, Foucault and the Political-Legal Discussions in China

A Discourse on Law and Democracy

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Fan Yang

    1. Center for Jurisprudence Research and Law School, Jilin University, Changchun, China

  • Serves as the first book comparing the discourse theories of Habermas and Foucault with Chinese traditional thoughts
  • Is the first book to explore the tension between normative discourse theory and political/legal practice in China
  • Presents three dimensions of discourse theory

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About this book

This book revisits the discourse theories of Habermas and Foucault in a Chinese context. After arguing that Habermas’s Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy is too normative and idealistic, it presents Foucault’s Discourse Theory of Power Relations to illustrate the tensions between different Western discourse theories. The book then draws on the normative concept of Confucian Rationality from traditional Chinese cultural sources in order to investigate how adaptable these two discourse theories are to the Chinese society, and to balance the tension between them. Presenting these three dimensions of discourse theory, as well as the relations between them, it also uses empirical descriptions of certain facts of political-legal discussion both in traditional China and in the country’s new media age to explain, supplement and question this theoretic framework.


The book asserts that, because of the diverse modes of thinking in specific cultures, there might be different normative paradigms of discorse and different political-legal discussion modes across corresponding cultural contexts. Normative discourse theories provide guidance for the practices of deliberative democracy and legal discussions, which can in turn verify, supplement, improve and challenge the normative discourse theories. In addition to demonstrating the multiple dimensions of discourse theories, this research also promotes an approach to the Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy that combines elements of both Chinese and modern society.   



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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Fan Yang
    Pages 1-16

  3. Between Normativity and Social Facts: A Sociological Interpretation of Habermas’s Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

    • Fan Yang
    Pages 17-43

  4. Communicative Rationality or Power Discourse: Foucault’s Challenge to Habermas

    • Fan Yang
    Pages 45-68

  5. Confucian Rationality: Another Normative Interpretation on Discourse Theory

    • Fan Yang
    Pages 69-96

  6. The Public Sphere and the Political-Legal Discussions in Traditional Chinese Society Influenced by Confucian Rationality

    • Fan Yang
    Pages 97-112

  7. Rationality and Power in the New Media Public Sphere of China

    • Fan Yang
    Pages 113-145

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 147-153
    Download chapter PDF
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Authors and Affiliations

  • Center for Jurisprudence Research and Law School, Jilin University, Changchun, China

    Fan Yang

About the author

Fan Yang is an associate professor of law and a fellow of the Center for Jurisprudence Research and the Research Center for Judicial Data Application at Jilin University, China. He holds a PhD degree of social science from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris-Saclay in France, and another PhD degree of philosophy from East China Normal University. His teaching experiences and studies focus on sociology of law, legal philosophy and comparative law.

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Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Habermas, Foucault and the Political-Legal Discussions in China

  • Book Subtitle: A Discourse on Law and Democracy

  • Authors: Fan Yang

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0132-4

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Law and Criminology, Law and Criminology (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-19-0131-7Published: 11 March 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-19-0134-8Published: 12 March 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-19-0132-4Published: 10 March 2022

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 153

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 11 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Theories of Law, Philosophy of Law, Legal History, Comparative Politics, Sociological Theory

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