Democracy and Defiance: Rancière, Lefort, Abensour and the Antinomies of Politics

This book explores an often neglected current in contemporary French political thought that challenges the limits of the concept of democracy. It situates the projects of Jacques Rancière, Claude Lefort and Miguel Abensour in relation to each other, as well as to the larger philosophical question of the nature of democracy itself. In doing so, Bryan Nelson illuminates democracy’s potential as a profound emancipatory and transformative project, offering an unprecedented challenge to modes of domination, strategies of inequality and hierarchies of all kinds. Against prevailing interpretations, the author draws on the central concepts, problems and polemics in the works of Rancière, Lefort and Abensour to develop a bold conception of democracy that allows us to rethink its character, power and broader social and political implications.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Introduction. The antinomies of politics A. Towards democracy’s anarchic conditionDemocracy as critiquePlato discovers the political: Rancière’s reading of the allegory of the shipPhilosophy’s sovereignty over politics: Abensour’s reading of the allegory of the caveThe polemics of the polis: the Greek invention of politicsDemocracy’s anarchic condition: a new political ontologyMaking politics thinkable B. Dissolution of the archêIn the name of democracy: the ‘kratos’ of the ‘demos’On the universality of the problem of the archêThe nature of rule: an interpretation of Plato’s LawsCommandment and commencement: the strange logic of the archê principleIn summary: archic governmentEnter democracy: what does it mean to be against the archê?Understanding democracy’s ‘anarchic title’Democracy as ‘political’ or ‘anarchic’ governmentAnarchy: the infinite opening C. To think democracy otherwise: Claude Lefort and savage democracyOn the status of political philosophyPierre Clastres and the logic of being againstThe essence of democracy: a question of interpretationDemocratic revolution: Tocqueville and LefortThe ‘principle of anarchy’ and the emancipatory act of politicsPermanent contestation: savage democracy and human rightsThinking democracy savage: a philosophical exercise D. Democratisation of the sensible: democracy against the police On the many forms of being-againstPolitics and the police: a radical dichotomyFoucault, the police and governmentalityThe government of the sensible and the symbolic constitution of society: Rancière’s concept of the police‘Logical revolt:’ towards a theory of the political subjectOn political namesThe ‘history’ or ‘tradition’ of emancipation E. The politics of emancipation: democracy against the State Social domination and political emancipation: an introduction to Abensour’s general approach to democracyFrom the Frankfurt School to Lefort and Machiavelli: Abensour’s critical political philosophyUtopia and democracyAgainst the State: Clastres contra HobbesMarx’s ‘Machiavellian moment:’ Hegel, sovereignty and political alienation‘True’ democracy and the reduction of the StateInsurgent democracyIn summary: Rancière’s democracy against the police and Abensour’s democracy against the State Conclusion. "Hic et nunc:" the use of philosophy and the critique of the present Bibliography

About the Author :
Bryan Nelson is a Liberal Arts & Sciences Professor at Humber College, Toronto, Canada.

Review :
Nelson’s book is imbued with both a sense of urgency and an almost timeless feeling. It asks us to rethink democracy, because the all-too-established notions that try to tame it fail at grasping its "savage" nature. This task is demanded by our times, but it is also intrinsic to democracy itself.