This paper analyzes the debate on inclusive potentials of contemporary democracies, according to the theoretical approach of radical democracy. On the one hand, activists and deliberative democrats concur in supporting liberal democracies and pointing its limitations; on the other hand, they disagree on mechanisms to radicalize it. Although since the Greeks there has been support in social and political theory to the extension of participation and to more deliberation (Bohman, 1998), the present sociopolitical context changes the nature of this debate. The contemporary debates take place within a framework of universal suffrage, a reality of growing deep disagreements and increasing restriction of deliberative spaces. This new context reshapes the debates and this paper analyzes the new terms.
Modern political theory; Radical democracy; Participation; Deliberative democracy; Political inclusion