Abstract

Once one puts aside, by necessity, the ancient concept of «concord», it does not follow one must erase from political philosophy the problem of researching which elements can guarantee the internal cohesion of the political society. In this sense the concept of «cooperation» may be fruitful, in a formulation inspired by John Rawls. Cooperation needs that the two components of society (citizenship as guarantee of rights and as a privileged space of a «social culture») coexist in harmony. The «constitutional patriotism» represents a component of cooperation, but only if integrated, differently from what happens in Habermas, with those shared civic virtues and practices which form, in their whole, the bases of living together.