Of citizens and plebeians

Autor(en)

Matthias Flatscher, Sergej Seitz

Abstrakt

This paper focuses on Habermas's notion of cosmopolitan democracy. Reconfiguring the basic ideas of democracy in postnational terms is inevitable if social and political integration is to succeed on a supranational level. In exploring Habermas's ideas, we draw on Rancière, whose thought stands in a complex relationship to Habermas. On the one hand, Rancière largely shares Habermas's diagnosis of the present. Both bemoan the erosion of the political caused by post-democracy and censure the rise of right-wing extremism in Western societies. On the other hand, and in contrast to Habermas, Rancière holds that these problems should be addressed not primarily by strengthening political institutions and reaching a consensus between conflicting parties, but by rethinking conflict and resistance. We show that Habermas's and Rancière's propositions can be productively brought in dialogue by focusing on the paradigmatic types of political subjectivity involved in their accounts: the citizen (Habermas) and the plebeian (Rancière).

Organisation(en)

Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Forschungszentrum Religion and Transformation, Institut für Philosophie

Journal

European Law Journal

Band

25

Seiten

502-507

Anzahl der Seiten

6

ISSN

1351-5993

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/eulj.12344

Publikationsdatum

09-2019

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

506013 Politische Theorie

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Law

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/of-citizens-and-plebeians(c2ca796b-77ad-4269-bb43-1e524ed2e594).html