Recasting Democratic Theory, 1984–1996 183
the constitution) could be justified without a complementary notion
of the constitution as an instrument for realizing a more democratic
society. By sublimating the spirit of revolution, as it were, into the
concept of constitutionalism as a self-revolutionizing or “fallible
learning process,” society could become more free, equal, and sol-
idaristic. Here Habermas followed Preuss: “Preuss defines ‘consti-
tution’ as the establishment of a fallible learning process through
which a society gradually overcomes its ability to engage in norma-
tive reflection on itself.”^51 Habermas elaborated on what he meant
by the claim that the constitution should be understood “dynami-
cally” as an “unfinished project”:
... [T]he constitutional state does not represent a finished struc-
ture but a delicate and sensitive – above all fallible and revisable –
enterprise, whose purpose is to realize the system of rights anew in
changing circumstances, that is, to interpret the system of rights
better, to institutionalize it more appropriately, and to draw out its
contents more radically.^52
By contrasting static and dynamic concepts of the constitution,
Habermas outlined the minimum conditions, as it were, “... for the
constitution’s principles to take root in our souls.” On the eve of
the revolution of 1989, Habermas was crafting a compelling rein-
terpretation of the classic Marxist notions of utopia and revolution.
However, the dynamic unleashed by the revolution of 1989 changed
everything. Soon, Habermas was on the defensive again, anxious
about the illiberalism of the citizens of the new German Länder.
A MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO REFOUND THE
REPUBLIC: HABERMAS ON THE DEFENSIVE
The revolution of 1989 reopened the question of the status of the
German Basic Law, a document that had never been intended to be
more than provisional. Habermas and other progressives began to
contemplate convoking a constitutional assembly that would have
the power to symbolically refound the republic. By the beginning
of 1990, though, Habermas worried that the quick absorption of the
(^51) Habermas, BFN, 444.
(^52) Ibid., 384 (emphasis added).