Agonistic Democracy: Constituent Power in the Era of Globalisation
Cambridge University Press, 9/26/2013
EAN 9781107003729, ISBN10: 1107003725
Hardcover, 348 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
Language: English
This pioneering book delivers a systematic account of agonistic democracy, and a much-needed analysis of the core components of agonism: pluralism, tragedy, and the value of conflict. It also traces the history of these ideas, identifying the connections with republicanism and with Greek antiquity. Mark Wenman presents a critical appraisal of the leading contemporary proponents of agonism and, in a series of well-crafted and comprehensive discussions, brings these thinkers into debate with one another, as well as with the post-structuralist and continental theorists who influence them. Wenman draws extensively on Hannah Arendt, and stresses the creative power of human action as augmentation and revolution. He also reworks Arendt's discussion of reflective judgement to present an alternative style of agonism, one where the democratic contest is linked to the emergence of a militant form of cosmopolitanism, and to prospects for historical change in the context of neoliberal globalisation.
Part I
Introduction
agonism and the constituent power
1. Agonism
pluralism, tragedy, and the value of conflict
2. Democracy
the constituent power as augmentation and/or revolution
Part II
3. An ethos of agonistic respect
William E. Connolly
4. Agonistic struggles for independence
James Tully
5. Agonism and the problem of antagonism
Chantal Mouffe
6. Agonism and the paradoxes of (re)foundation
Bonnie Honig
Part III
7. Agonism and militant cosmopolitanism
Conclusion
agonism after the end of history.
Advance praise: 'The first comprehensive and critical survey of the whole field of agonistic democracy. It is an excellent introduction to this new field and makes an original contribution to it.' James Tully, Distinguished Professor, University of Victoria