Thinking Radical Democracy

"Thinking Radical Democracy is a serious contribution to the literature on theories of radical democracy. I learned something new from every chapter." -- Lasse Thomassen, School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary, University of London "Pushing the renewed interest in post-war French political thought in new and exciting directions, this collection makes the case that there is an understudied radical current of democratic thinking in post-war French thought. Thinking Radical Democracy does an immense service to Anglophone political thought by starting a conversation on the political theory of these thinkers." -- Jimmy Casas Klausen, Instituto de Relacoes Internacionais, Pontif cia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro

Thinking Radical Democracy is an introduction to nine key political thinkers who contributed to the emergence of radical democratic thought in post-war French political theory.

Thinking Radical Democracy is an introduction to nine key political thinkers who contributed to the emergence of radical democratic thought in post-war French political theory: Hannah Arendt, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Pierre Clastres, Claude Lefort, Cornelius Castoriadis, Guy Debord, Jacques Rancière, Étienne Balibar, and Miguel Abensour.

The essays in this collection connect these writers through their shared contribution to the idea that division and difference in politics can be perceived as productive, creative, and fundamentally democratic. The questions they raise regarding equality and emancipation in a democratic society will be of interest to those studying social and political thought or democratic activist movements like the Occupy movements and Idle No More.