LA RECONNAISSANCE, UNE NOUVELLE PASSION DEMOCRATIQUE?
RECOGNITION OF A NEW DEMOCRATIC PASSION?

Summary/Abstract: According to Tocqueville, the democracy is characterized by the “passion for equality”, which can be in turn the enemy of freedom. But is it not the request for recognition (to be a victim, a member of a minority group, a subject of contempt, a suffering individual etc.) a new democratic passion, qualifying what we call today a “providential democracy”? The need for recognition appears to have ambivalent effects. On one side, it expresses a real need for social solidarity, giving a moral dimension to citizenship; on the other side, it weakens the democracy, by atomization, communitarianism, compassionalism and so on. This essay defends the idea that the demand for recognition, instead of being a passion for compassion, can be a vector for reciprocity on the basis of the self esteem.

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