Raymond Aron and the 'Sense of Compromise' in Democracy

Auteurs-es

  • Laure Gillot-Assayag Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

DOI :

https://doi.org/10.5195/jffp.2023.1040

Mots-clés :

democracy, Aron, compromise, totalitarianism, liberalism

Résumé

This article seeks to explore the relevance of compromise in Raymond Aron’s essays. The concept of compromise has never been subjected to critical scrutiny in his works. The paper offers a new interpretation of R. Aron’s democratic theory by arguing that “the sense of compromise”, mainly set out in Democracy and Totalitarianism, is a foundational and pivotal concept to highlight the specifics of his liberal thought and his understanding of democratic pluralism.

It aims to provide a critical analysis, presenting a focused exploration of three types of compromise, broken down into three areas (the political-pluralist compromise; the economic compromise; the foreign policy compromise). In each of these cases, key qualities and limitations of compromise solutions for deadlocked controversies are outlined.
The article argues that, for R. Aron, economic compromise is the easiest to achieve.
The paper further discusses possible criteria that can help to discriminate moral from immoral compromises. It concludes that “the sense of compromise” is inseparable from any serious attempt to think afresh R. Aron’s democratic theory.

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Publié-e

2024-04-12

Numéro

Vol. 31 No. 1/2 (2023)

Rubrique

Articles

Licence

(c) Tous droits réservés Laure Gillot-Assayag 2024

Licence Creative Commons

Cette œuvre est sous licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International.


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