Demonstrating the differences and similarities existing between Kant's concept of upublic use of reason" and Rawls' "public reason" will possibly lead us to uncover those two big approaches that conceive the contemporary democracy. Debates that are presently taking place around democracy as moral mechanisms and democracy as discourse recognition do not escape, without doubt, to the classical and continuous discussion between republicanism and proceduralism. lssues that, nevertheless, originated new ways to understand democracy, not only asan enduring right of majorities but al so as the inclusion of minorities recognizing their discursive meanings.