Dealing with difference : the Republican public-private distinction

Abstract

This paper discusses the best way to deal with difference in the public sphere. The liberal public-private distinction focuses on control and relegates difference to the private. It is subject to the criticism that it is exclusive, marginalizes values, and relies on a distinction between the state and civil society which cannot be systematically sustained. The republican public-private distinction is paradigmatically different; it focuses on interest, envisages plural publics, and offers the possibility of public recognition by encouraging deliberation between different moral and cultural perspectives. Thus it avoids the criticisms levelled against the liberal use, without assuming, as communitarians and cultural pluralists do, that the public realm can unproblematically replicate private values.