White, Stephen K. and Evan Robert Farr. "'No-Saying' in Habermas." Political Theory 40.1 (2012): 32-57.

Habermas’s paradigm of communicative action is usually taken to be pretty much dominated by consensus, “Yes-saying.” What if this were a radically one-sided perception? We take up this unorthodox position by arguing that “no-saying” in this paradigm is typically overlooked and underemphasized. To demonstrate this, we consider how negativity is figured at the most basic onto-ethical level in communicative action, as well as expressed in civil disobedience, a phenomenon to which Habermas assigns the remarkable role of “touchstone” (Prufstein) of constitutional democracy. Once the importance of no-saying is drawn out, the paradigm looks distinctly less hostile to dissensus and agonism in democratic life.

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