John Rawls discusses the idea of public reason in a well-ordered constitutional democratic society. Public reason is central to democracy, as it involves the understanding of political relationships and the reasonable pluralism of comprehensive doctrines. Citizens must consider what kinds of reasons they may reasonably give one another when fundamental political questions are at stake. Public reason does not criticize any comprehensive doctrine, religious or nonreligious, except when it is incompatible with the essentials of public reason and a democratic polity. The basic requirement is that a reasonable doctrine accepts a constitutional democratic regime and its companion idea of legitimate law. Public reason has five aspects: (1) the fundamental political questions it applies to; (2) the persons it applies to, such as government officials and candidates for public office; (3) its content as given by a family of reasonable political conceptions of justice; (4) the application of these conceptions in discussions of coercive norms to be enacted in the form of legitimate law for a democratic people; and (5) citizens' checking that the principles derived from their conceptions of justice satisfy the criterion of reciprocity. Public reason is public in three ways: as the reason of free and equal citizens, it is the reason of the public; its subject is the public good concerning questions of fundamental political justice; and its nature and content are public, being expressed in public reasoning by a family of reasonable conceptions of political justice. Public reason applies only to discussions of fundamental questions in the public political forum, which includes the discourse of judges, government officials, and candidates for public office. It does not apply to the background culture or media. The ideal of public reason is realized when government officials and citizens act from and follow public reason and explain their reasons for supporting political positions in terms of the political conception of justice they regard as the most reasonable. Public reason is crucial in deliberative democracy, where citizens exchange views and debate their supporting reasons concerning public political questions. It characterizes citizens' reasoning concerning constitutional essentials and matters of basic justice. Deliberative democracy has three essential elements: an idea of public reason, a framework of constitutional democratic institutions, and the knowledge and desire of citizens to follow public reason. The content of public reason is given by a family of political conceptions of justice, not by a single one. These conceptions include justice as fairness, which is but one of many. The limiting feature of these forms is the criterion of reciprocity, viewed as applied between free and equal citizens. Three main features characterize these conceptions: a list of certain basic rights, liberties, and opportunities; an assignment of special priority to those rights, especially with respect to the claims of the general good; and measures ensuring for all citizens adequate all-purpose means to make effective use of their freedoms. Public reason is distinct from secular reason and secular values. Secular reason is reasoning in terms of comprehensive nonreligious doctrines, which are too broad to serve the purposes of public reason. Political values areJohn Rawls discusses the idea of public reason in a well-ordered constitutional democratic society. Public reason is central to democracy, as it involves the understanding of political relationships and the reasonable pluralism of comprehensive doctrines. Citizens must consider what kinds of reasons they may reasonably give one another when fundamental political questions are at stake. Public reason does not criticize any comprehensive doctrine, religious or nonreligious, except when it is incompatible with the essentials of public reason and a democratic polity. The basic requirement is that a reasonable doctrine accepts a constitutional democratic regime and its companion idea of legitimate law. Public reason has five aspects: (1) the fundamental political questions it applies to; (2) the persons it applies to, such as government officials and candidates for public office; (3) its content as given by a family of reasonable political conceptions of justice; (4) the application of these conceptions in discussions of coercive norms to be enacted in the form of legitimate law for a democratic people; and (5) citizens' checking that the principles derived from their conceptions of justice satisfy the criterion of reciprocity. Public reason is public in three ways: as the reason of free and equal citizens, it is the reason of the public; its subject is the public good concerning questions of fundamental political justice; and its nature and content are public, being expressed in public reasoning by a family of reasonable conceptions of political justice. Public reason applies only to discussions of fundamental questions in the public political forum, which includes the discourse of judges, government officials, and candidates for public office. It does not apply to the background culture or media. The ideal of public reason is realized when government officials and citizens act from and follow public reason and explain their reasons for supporting political positions in terms of the political conception of justice they regard as the most reasonable. Public reason is crucial in deliberative democracy, where citizens exchange views and debate their supporting reasons concerning public political questions. It characterizes citizens' reasoning concerning constitutional essentials and matters of basic justice. Deliberative democracy has three essential elements: an idea of public reason, a framework of constitutional democratic institutions, and the knowledge and desire of citizens to follow public reason. The content of public reason is given by a family of political conceptions of justice, not by a single one. These conceptions include justice as fairness, which is but one of many. The limiting feature of these forms is the criterion of reciprocity, viewed as applied between free and equal citizens. Three main features characterize these conceptions: a list of certain basic rights, liberties, and opportunities; an assignment of special priority to those rights, especially with respect to the claims of the general good; and measures ensuring for all citizens adequate all-purpose means to make effective use of their freedoms. Public reason is distinct from secular reason and secular values. Secular reason is reasoning in terms of comprehensive nonreligious doctrines, which are too broad to serve the purposes of public reason. Political values are