Freedom's Right: The Social Foundations of Democratic Life

Theories of justice often fixate on purely normative, abstract principles unrelated to real-world situations. The philosopher and theorist Axel Honneth addresses this disconnect, and constructs a theory of justice derived from the normative claims of Western liberal-democratic societies and anchored in morally legitimate laws and institutionally established practices.

Honneth's paradigm—which he terms "a democratic ethical life"—draws on the spirit of Hegel's Philosophy of Right and his own...