Introduction Since the publication of Jürgen Habermas's seminal statement in the “Discourse Ethics,” normative theories of democracy have continually emphasized the importance of justifying public policies according to reasons that are universally accepted.¹ However, in asserting the possibility of such “reasons all can accept,”² deliberative democracy has sustained the illusory belief that its worthy ideal—political legitimacy achieved through mutual justification—may be realized under the most unlikely conditions, which is to say, among the disconnected and deracinated individuals living in large-scale democracies. Moreover, if it is true, as is argued below, that justification is always grounded in Sittlichkeit, i.e., a particular…