"The very features of democracy that make it attractive--its
openness, reflexivity, and fluidity--also generates objectionable
qualities. Even at its best, democracy generates serial
resolutions, each of which brings into existence new closures,
manifest in the new and serial 'we's' constituted by democratic
procedures. In this fine book, Alan Keenan argues that democrats
must understand that these objectionable features are essential to
what democracy is. Examining a number of contemporary democratic
theories committed to openness and inclusion, Keenan shows how
often strategies for grounding democratic openness edge toward
closure, and do so while failing to acknowledge the basic risks of
democratic experience. What if, Keenan asks, the search for
unquestionable grounds for democratic openness turns out to
undermine democracy, not because of the substance of the grounds,
but because of the nature of the search? Would it be possible to
transform the objectionable features of democracy into a source of
a democratic ethos? Keenan suggests that the risks of democracy
might be affirmed as a shared fate in ways that support openness,
providing an ethical complement to more traditional approaches to
democratic theory and practice. Whether or not they agree with his
solution, it will be hard for democratic theorists to ignore
Keenan's powerful formulation of the problem." --Professor Mark E.
Warren, Georgetown University
"There is a paradox at the heart of the idea of democracy a product
of its commitment to freedom combined with its need to found that
freedom in a foundation that constrains. Democracy, devoted to
freedom, is always, ineluctably implicated in sovereignty, violence
andrule. This paradox is ignored or resolved by most democratic
theorists, but not by Alan Keenan. In Democracy in Question, Keenan
relentlessly tracks the mischief worked by democracyis fundamental
paradox in the thinking of Castoriadis, Rousseau, Arendt, Laclau
and Mouffe, and Sandel. Keenanis readings of all these thinkers are
masterful. On Arendt, in particular, he is brilliant. This book,
rigorous, penetrating and clearly written, is no less than a
must-read for everyone interested in democratic theory and the
politics of freedom and legitimation." --Bonnie Honig, Northwestern
University & The American Bar Foundation
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