La democrazia tra identità e differenza. La prospettiva di Charles Taylor

[Autom. eng. transl.] Within this contribution I intend to submit to critical analysis the philosophical-political reflection developed by Charles Taylor on some aspects of democracy. In the opinion of the Canadian philosopher, for the purposes of their very existence, modern democratic states require the presence of a "people" characterized by a strong collective identity. Democracy, in fact, implies, on the part of the citizens, a much more considerable moral and political commitment than what happened in the hierarchical and authoritarian societies of the past. For the survival of democracy, therefore, societies cannot avoid asking themselves the problem of a shared identity space: alongside the recognition of the values that lie at the basis of democracy and the need to establish a shared public identity, it is reasonable - however - ask about the problem of "difference", at least according to two meanings, strictly interrelated. First of all, we ask ourselves how we should interpret the need to give life to a shared identity while preserving, at the same time, the value of "difference", regardless of which the understandable need for social cohesion would end up being prey to some form of collectivism, political homologation or totalitarian power. Secondly, the theme of "difference" is expressed in the presence of divergent perspectives within the same public space and, therefore, brings out the problem of ethical, cultural and religious pluralism. The plausibility of a practical reasoning developed by means of "transitions" and a "comparative vocabulary" in facing the challenges of pluralism is assessed in this paper.