englischHow can (radical) democracy be taught, learned and experienced? How can theory and practice be united? At Bielefeld University, these questions were put to the test in a threefold democratic seminar experiment. This anthology documents the experiences and reflections of the participants and [...]

englischThis anthology aims to address a void in the debates on assisted dying and assisted suicide, which are dominated by legal, medical, theological and practical–ethical perspectives. Liberal institutionalisation of assisted suicide has been within reach since the Federal Constitutional Court's [...]

englischIs democratic society at an end? The belief in the possibility of collective self-governance is in decline today in the face of populist and regressive policies. In response to this crisis, it is necessary to rethink democracy. To this end, this study develops a system of democratic [...]

englischThe book ‘Kampf und Kompromiss’ (Struggle and Compromise) deals with the reception of the work of the constitutional lawyer and political scientist Otto Kirchheimer in the USA and the Federal Republic of Germany since the 1960s. Kirchheimer's work is characterised by a wide range of [...]

englischThe almost constantly recurring crises of the democratic order and relations between humans and nature in our age of the Capitalocene are currently reviving debates on economic models beyond the capitalist market economy. Focusing on democratically planned economies, this volume discusses [...]

englischAt the base of modern law lies a contradiction: It is supposed to realise the equality of all and yet, at the same time, permanently produces exclusions and violence. The lives of refugees, for example, seem to be less worthy of protection in the eyes of nation-state legal systems than the [...]

englischFollowing Marx s dictum that man ‘in his individual existence is at the same time a social being’, this book explores the question of collective agency. The author’s argument is that, thanks to its social construction as a collective being, the subject is afforded the chance to engage in [...]

englischIn times of crises, critical thinking needs to be maintained and fostered. This volume on critical political theory in the coronavirus pandemic brings together 13 contributions that offer a variety of perspectives on the interrelationship between critique and crisis. What are the [...]

englischAccording to widespread criticism, radical democratic theories exhibit shortcomings when it comes to institutions, which prevents these conceptions from contributing to a concrete transformation of the political landscape. This volume's aim is to respond to this criticism and to highlight [...]

englischTo what extent can political theories adequately address the dangers that may accompany the political? This monograph is less concerned with the emancipative potential of the political, but rather with its downsides.

Drawing on the concept of precarity, as defined in sociology and the May [...]

englisch‘Populism’ unites different political positions and strategies that can’t be summed up in a concept which clearly encapsulates all those heterogeneous phenomena. The contributions in this volume therefore address a strategic space in which analyses of populist movements also locate [...]

englischWhat holds capitalist societies together: moral norms or rules of behaviour? Is social totality a normative order or is it a purposeless game? These alternatives divide critical theory and also prevent fruitful dialogue between French and German social philosophy.

Critical social theory is [...]

englischThis study examines the relationship between Rousseau’s political thinking and the radical democracy connected with Claude Lefort. Using the history of ideas, it systematically reinterprets the common perception of this relationship as being irreconcilable in order to integrate Rousseau’s [...]

englischThis book updates Rousseau’s concept of popular sovereignty and therefore provides a radical democratic alternative to the liberal transnational theory of democracy. Whereas the latter responds normatively to globalisation with claims for individual rights and standards of good governance, [...]

englischColin Crouch and Jacques Rancière have coined the concept of post-democracy to articulate the suspicion that aspirations and reality of today's democracies fall apart. Western societies still regard themselves as democratic; they follow democratic constitutions and adhere to democratic [...]

englischIn order to attain a comprehensive understanding of the idea of alienation, we particularly need to acknowledge its political dimension. The present study substantiates this assumption by first reconstructing the rudimentary existing contours of a political theory of alienation in the works [...]

englischThe book offers a counter-model to the classical liberal theories of civil disobedience, as developed by authors such as John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin. Based on a strict opposition between liberalism and democracy it proposes a new perspective for the understanding of political disobedience. [...]

englischConceived methodically as a cultural-sociological study, this book aims to describe the link between generational experience and thought, taking the example of the young Walter Benjamin. With the presentation of typical experiences of Benjamin’s generation of German-Jewish intellectuals, [...]

englischIt is common sense today that we need to relieve human living-together from claims that do not permit any compromise. Do such claims when taken as indispensable not really conjure up the worst forms of violence? In face of this danger the consequent renunciation of all allegedly [...]

In einer Welt perfekt deklinierter Individualität und Anonymität ist die Existenz als Bürger eigentlich verloren. Mit dieser Diagnose beginnt die demokratietheoretische Analyse des vorliegenden Buches, die sich im Dialog mit Hannah Arendt und Jürgen Habermas als eine Situationskritik des Politischen [...]

Zeitgenössische Machttheorien haben die Formen und den Umfang der als politisch und sozial relevant erachteten Machtphänomene erheblich ausgeweitet, wie die Konjunktur von Begriffen wie Netzwerk, Governance oder Diskurs zeigt. Auch im politischen Alltag sind neue Formen der Machtausübung zu [...]

Die Frage nach den Möglichkeitsbedingungen verantwortlicher Wissensproduktion gewinnt gerade dann an Aktualität, wenn die Idee vom postsouveränen Sprechen ihren Platz im Diskurs der Verantwortung behauptet. Der Band stellt sich dieser Frage und leuchtet einen Versuchsraum aus, in dem das Paradoxon [...]

Diese Studie präsentiert drei Stimmen der neueren französischen Foucaultkritik: Cornelius Castoriadis, Marcel Gauchet und Alain Renaut. Der Subjektbegriff und das Verständnis des Politischen stehen im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung: Unter welchen Voraussetzungen ist Autonomie möglich? Die Ansätze von [...]

Angesichts einer zunehmend als prekär erfahrenen sozialen Integration in den heutigen westlichen Gesellschaften wendet sich die aktuelle Ethik und Sozialphilosophie dem Konzept der Anerkennung zu. Anerkennungsprozesse werden dabei in der Regel so konzipiert, dass Person A bestimmte Eigenschaften [...]

Die Politische Ideengeschichte stand lange Zeit unter der Vorherrschaft neukantianischer Ansätze. Die Klassiker wurden vor allem daraufhin befragt, wie sie das Politische in einem ihm selbst vorausgehenden Vernunft- und Wertehorizont zu begründen und dabei insbesondere die Souveränität des Staates [...]