Jürgen Habermas, 78, is one of the most influential philosophers and social theorists of the last century and he shows no sign of letting up. Here’s is a recent article where he is theorising on why the Irish voted no for Lisbon.
Much of Habermas’ writing concentrated on the nature of Germany in the 1930’s exploring why the Holocaust happened and asking questions as to what might be learned about the role of governments. Fundamental to his theory is the difference between what he calls “strategic action” and “communicative action” or to put it another way between the “system” and the “lifeworld”.
Strategic action is all about getting people to do what you want them do and its aimed at getting your way whether or not the person you are interacting with agrees with you or not. A lot of government action could be described in this way. Take the Irish No vote on Lisbon – a lot of the difficulty was the expectation by the Irish Government that people would vote Yes because they told them to.
Communicative action on the other hand, is about coming to a common understanding so that you can progress an idea, or solve a problem with mutual understanding.
So the System is guided by economic or administrative power: the markets, the state whereas the Lifeworld reflects our experience of everyday life: friends, family, cultural pastimes. Systems are the home of strategic action and the lifeworld that of communicative action. So what does this have to offer public policy makers in local government?
