Expanding the Democratic Ideal: Inclusion and Difference in Iris Marion Young's Political Theory.

This paper considers the political writings of Iris Marion Young with attention to her radical call for expanded inclusion in the deliberative processes of modern politics. Unlike the Habermasian ideal of discursively established consensus, Young intends to expose and account for the multiplicity and indeterminacy of voices in a democracy. While Young's basic argument is that we must open political discourse to different kinds of voices than those acceptable according to traditional standards of Enlightenment rationality, her critique of politics implies more. Young's account of democratic politics not only requires a reconceptualization of the meaning of political identity, but also implies that a revised view of democratic theory aimed at trying to incorporate those that are excluded by assimilationist approaches to democratic politics. An assessment of these implications in this paper includes an evaluation of Young's structural recommendations, and also a discussion of the applicability of these recommendations in a broader political context. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]