Hugh W. Baxter (Boston University – School of Law) has posted Habermas's Sociological and Normative Theory of Law and Democracy: A Reply to Wirts, Flynn, and Zurn (Philosophy and Social Criticism 40(2) pp. 225-34 (2014)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
In "Between Facts and Norms" (1996) Habermas presents the more straightforward normative discourse theory of law and democracy, in terms of contemporary legal orders, and then examines, in terms of social theory, whether the theory is plausible, given the complex nature of today’s conditions. The following article focuses in particular on Habermas’ social theory. It is critical of Habermas’ idea of ‘the lifeworld’ and discusses whether the circulation-of-power model might be mapped onto the system – lifeworld model.
Recommended.