Democracy in what state? [electronic resource] / Giorgio Agamben [and others] ; translations from the French by William McCuaig.

Democracy in what state? [electronic resource] / Giorgio Agamben [and others] ; translations from the French by William McCuaig.

Démocratie, dans quel état? English

9780231527088 (electronic book)
9780231152983

New York : Columbia University Press, [2011]

©2011

English

1 online resource (ix, 130 pages).

JC423 .D46313 2011eb

321.8

In Responding To Ties Question, eight iconoclastic thinkers prove the rich potential of democracy, along with its critical weaknesses, and reconceive the practice to accommodate new political and cultural realities. Giorgio Agamben traces the tense history of constitutions and their coexistence with various governments. Alain Badiou contrasts current democratic practice with democratic communism. Daniel Bensaid ponders the institutionalization of democracy, while Wendy Brown discusses the democratization of society under neoliberalism. Jean-Luc Nancy measures the difference between democracy as a form of rule and as a human end, and Jacques RanciFre highlights its egalitarian nature. Kristin Ross identifies hierarchical relationships within democratic practice, and Slavoj ÄiPek complicates the distinction between those who desire to own the state and those who wish to do without it.
Concentrating on the classical roots of democracy and its changing meaning over time and within different contexts, these essays uniquely defend what is left of the left-wing tradition after the fall of Soviet communism. They confront disincentives to active democratic participation that have caused voter turnout to decline in Western countries, and they address electoral indifference by invoking and reviving the tradition of citizen involvement. Passionately written and theoretically rich, this collection speaks to all facets of modern political and democratic debate. --Book Jacket.

Includes bibliographical references.

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New directions in critical theory.

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