Recasting Democratic Theory, 1984–1996 181
That Habermas felt that there was positive historical momentum
in the mid-1980s is also evident in one of his 1988 essays: “Under the
banner of postmodern farewells,” he wrote, “we are now supposed to
distance ourselves from that exemplary event [the French Revolution]
whose effects have been felt for the last two hundred years.”^42 But
Habermas resisted the postmodern critiques of Enlightenment ide-
als by “endeavor[ing] to translate the the normative content” of
the ideals of 1789 into new forms.^43 Reconceptualizing democratic
republics as a dynamic “project”(Projekt) rather than a static “pos-
session” was critical to this act of translation:
A republic of this sort is not a possession we simply accept as our
fortunate inheritance from the past. Rather it is a project we must
carry forward in the consciousness of a revolution both permanent
and quotidian.^44
Habermas was dissatisfied with the West German citizenry’s
relationship to its constitution, seeing in it a kind of passivity or, to
recall Kant’s phrase, a self-incurred immaturity. By contrasting two
views of the constitution – as “possession” or “project” – Habermas
reenchanted the Rechtsstaat with a utopian, revolutionary aura. By
treating the constitution as something static – the “fortunate inher-
itance” from 1949 – the public forfeited what Habermas valued: an
understanding of the constitution as a dynamic, unfinished project:
In view of the double anniversaries of 1789 and 1949... a leftist in
the Federal Republic must consider this undertaking an impera-
tive: the principles of the constitution will not take root in our souls
until reason has assured itself of those principles’ orienting, future-
directed contents.^45
The statement that the constitution would not be “rooted in our
souls” until “reason” has been reassured that the content of the con-
stitutional principles is “future-oriented” appears at first to signify
an uncharacteristic romanticism. But the ambiguous subjects – “our
souls” and “reason” – were not only aimed at West Germans generally
(^42) Habermas, “Popular Sovereignty as Procedure”[1988], in idem, BFN, 463.
He is referring to François Furet’s Penser La Révolution Française (Paris:
Gallimard, 1978).
(^43) Ibid., 477.
(^44) Habermas, BFN, 471 (emphasis added).
(^45) Ibid.