DEMOCRACY, IDENTITY AND CITIZENSHIP: FIGURES ON THE MARGINS

Abstract

Does identity matter to democracy? This is the question that serves as the maintheme of this work in which the author discusses the idea of identity and the dialectic between equality and difference, individual rights and collective rights within the framework of the theory of democracy and contemporary citizenship. Takings contributions in this area from the work of N. Fraser, A. Gutmann, but I. M. Young and S. Benhabib, the author defends transnational public policies that guide critical dialogue, tending to remove the conditions of cultural and economic dependence, submission and marginality in which, in the name of universality or cultural identity, are more and more groups of individuals. Distributive justice and recognition are two mutually exclusive variables per se, should be kept in constant balance with each other because, if the mere formal recognition of rights is not enough nor is the appeal to a traditional or indigenous cultural identity that often bring with them centuries of inequalities.