'At the leading edge of critical studies into democratic theory and
practice.'
Dr Iain MacKenzie, University of Kent
This book presents an innovative analysis of the nature of
democratic theory, focusing on the prevalence of pious discourses
of democracy in contemporary politics.
Democracy is now promoted in religious terms to such an extent
that it has become sacrosanct in Western political theory. Rather
than accepting this situation, this book argues that such piety
relies on unsophisticated political analysis that pays scant
attention to the complex conditions of contemporary politics.
Little contends that the importance of conflict is underplayed in
much democratic theory and that it is more useful to think instead
of democracy in terms of the centrality of political disagreement
and its propensity to generate political violence. This argument is
exemplified by the ways in which democracy and violence have been
conceptualised in the war on terrorism.
Fighting against democratic piety, this book contends that it is
vital to understand the inevitable failure of democratic politics
and thus promotes a theory of democracy founded on the idea of
'constitutive failure'.
Key Features:
Challenges democratic piety through the application of key
contemporary approaches in political theory: complexity theory,
post-structuralism and the idea of radical democracy
Uses the work of theorists such as Jacques RanciA]re, William
Connolly, Chantal Mouffe, Judith Butler, Slavoj A1/2iA3/4ek,
Giorgio Agamben, Walter Benjamin and Alain Badiou to interrogate
the discourses of democracy which characterise contemporary
political debate
Grounds the theoretical analysis of democraticdiscourse with
examples from contemporary politics including the war on terror,
the process of indigenous reconciliation in Australia, the
struggles for recognition of refugees and asylum seekers, the
plight of the Sans-Papiers in France, and the problems in Northern
Irish politics over the last ten years.
General
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