The paramount thesis of the article is that the issue of democratic legitimation should address the mutual interrelations between social, institutional and legal orders. The normative deficit of modern democratic polities stems from the overwhelming blindness to discursive justifications of political decisions and, in consequence, from the disregard for the necessity of enhancing moral-democratic competencies of citizens themselves. Menwhile, the moral democratic competencies condition the possibility of the widen participation of the citizenry and its empowerment. The second part of the article consists of the presentation of the idea of political philosophy as public philosophy. With reference to B. Williams two essential questions are addressed: the question of the identity of public philosophy (What is public philosophy?), and the question of the audience of public philosophy (Who is being addressed and for what purpose?). A realistically utopian character of public philosophy is stressed.

The paramount thesis of the article is that the issue of democratic legitimation should address the mutual interrelations between social, institutional and legal orders. The normative deficit of modern democratic polities stems from the overwhelming blindness to discursive justifications of political decisions and, in consequence, from the disregard for the necessity of enhancing moral-democratic competencies of citizens themselves. Menwhile, the moral democratic competencies condition the possibility of the widen participation of the citizenry and its empowerment. The second part of the article consists of the presentation of the idea of political philosophy as public philosophy. With reference to B. Williams two essential questions are addressed: the question of the identity of public philosophy (What is public philosophy?), and the question of the audience of public philosophy (Who is being addressed and for what purpose?). A realistically utopian character of public philosophy is stressed.