Radikale Demokratie

Since the publication of their major work ‘Hegemony and Socialist Strategy’ in 1985, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe have been regarded as the most eminent proponents of a form of post-Marxist thinking that adheres to Marxism’s emancipatory aspirations without adopting its historical, philosophical and economic determinism. Laclau and Mouffe endeavour to continue Marxism’s emancipatory ideas by radicalising and expanding on processes of democratisation.
The contributions in this volume explain the implications and consequences of their endeavours to achieve this. The authors of these contributions politicise Laclau and Mouffe’s conception of the state, that is, they understand it as the battlefield in a conflict of interpretations. In the eyes of Laclau and Mouffe, understanding how the state defines itself is part of examining it in terms of politics. They emphasise that their understanding of radical democracy does comply with the institutions in today’s Western democracies. In their opinion, however, what democracy is and how it can be institutionalised is not even clear in democratic processes themselves.
With contributions by
Simon Bohn, Ingo Elbe, Andreas Hetzel, Liza Mattutat and Felix Breuning, Ingo Pohn-Lauggas, Anja Rüdiger, Alfred Schäfer, Susanne-Verena Schwarz, Manon Westphal, Stefanie Wöhl and Joscha Wullweber