Three Theoretical Models of Politicisation: Republican, Deliberative, and Political

The paper reconstructs three models of politicisation and evaluates their analytical as well as their normative merits. The republican model rests on a conception of politics that locates political action within a community of citizens, and it implies a communitarian, though not necessarily harmonious understanding of politicisation. However, this limits politicisation to the realm of the res publica. In contrast, the deliberative model broadens the scope of politicisation by arguing against a notion of a fixed public realm, but narrows politicisation down at the same time since it relies on an overly rationalistic concept of politics and a flawed social theory. I conclude by arguing that only the political model of politicisation is able to grasp the ambivalent nature of politicisation since it takes the epistemic and normative irrationality of politics into account and locates politicisation in the broader horizon of a theory of political society.