The Role and Function of Compromise in Political Thought

Abstract

Interest in the concept of compromise is increasing in public and scholarly debates. In contrast with a consensus, a compromise is the product of mutual concession-making. A compromise is made on the basis of continuing disagreement, and it settles conflicts by means of arrangements that partly realize the views of all involved parties. While compromise may be considered a central mode of conflict management for societies in general, diagnoses of an intensified polarization in contemporary societies render reflections on the role and preconditions of compromise in politics particularly relevant. Against this backdrop, it is surprising that compromise does not seem to be a central concept in political theory. Debates in political theory focus on the concepts of pluralism and disagreement, and the question to what extent consensus is a desirable and realistic goal of political conflict processing, but tend to neglect the concept of compromise. The objectives of this panel are twofold. Firstly, it puts this diagnosis to the test and maps considerations of compromise in the field of political theory. Secondly, it explores the resources for theorising the role and function of compromise that different political theories offer. With these two goals in mind, the panel addresses the following questions. What role does compromise play, or what role could it play, in different traditions of political thought, such as liberalism, republicanism, or feminism? Is compromise discussed differently in different linguistic-cultural traditions of political thought, such as Anglo-American political thought and French political thought? What role does compromise play in the theories of selected political thinkers? Do different democratic theories offer different perspectives on the political functions of compromise? For example, does Habermasian deliberative democracy encourage us to think differently about compromise than agonistic democratic theory? What does it mean to theorize central themes of political thought like democracy or institutions on the basis of the concept of compromise? By addressing these and related questions, the panel seeks to expand and deepen our understanding of the place and potential future of compromise in political thought.

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