Against the personification of democracy : a Lacanian critique of political subjectivity /: a Lacanian critique of political subjectivity. (2011)

• Record Type: Book
• Further Information: Note: By Wesley C. Swedlow.
• Other Names: Swedlow, Wesley C
• Contents: Introduction: Problems with Reality Chapter 1: Desire & Ideology in the Leviathan1. Rational Action2. Reckoning Reason3. Passion & Power4. Hobbesian Ideological State Apparatuses5. The Politicization of DesireSets up the issue of political subjectivity by reading Hobbes as a thinker of desire and ideology. Argues that Hobbes cannot be read in any sense as a rational choice theorist, but rather as a theorist of irrationality. Establishes desire as central to the question of subjectivity and all political formations.Chapter 2: Internal Externalities1. The Spirit of the Letter2. Money or Life?3. Stateless Nature4. Universal Oblivion5. Biological Violence6. Persona Non GrataStages the debate between Locke and Hobbes in terms of the nature of subjectivity and argues that Hobbes has the better grasp. Grounds this argument through a reading of Arendt's description of the stateless, leading to an analysis of the concept of violence in Arendt's works. Distinguishes the publicly represented persona from the person. Argues that rights and political formations must exist in and for the person, insofar as the state of nature generally corresponds to the person while the political state corresponds to the persona.Chapter 3: The Return of the Political1. Being All That You Can't Be: The Mirror Stage2. Money or Life: Alienation & Existence3. Signifying Nothing4. The Paternal Metaphor & its Phallusy5. Che Voi? From Separation to Desire6. Traversing the Fantasy7. The Return of the PoliticalProposes that the only way to describe the generally vague or unarticulated concepts of desire and drive that work in Hobbes and Arendt is through a Lacanian reading of subjectivity. Shows how Lacanian theory provides a systematic understanding of the nature of desire and drive in subjectivity, thus indicating why representative democracy tends towards its failure in various ways, further promoting the argument that personified democracy, or democracy for a given subject of personas, will tend to produce external persons that can be eradicated in various ways.Chapter 4: The Personification of Democracy 1. The Gutting of the Sovereign: Lefort's Democratic Void2. Laclau & Mouffe's Hegemonic Strategy3. Lacan as Theorist of Democracy4. Only an Act Can Save UsDiscusses radical democratic theory and Lacanian political theory. Provides an overview of the ways in which these theories work and critiques them accordingly. As such, radical democratic theory is shown to merely reinforce the problems of representative democracy outlined earlier, while Zizekian theory is shown to be passive and exclusive, thus disallowing both praxis and a truly universal democracy. Conclusion: Against the Personification of DemocracyTakes the theory of political subjectivity formulated in the previous chapters and, in conjunction with the critique of radical democratic and Zizekian theory, proposes a universal theory of political cohabitation that is anti-sovereign and anti-representative. Notes.
• Publisher Details: New York : Continuum
• Publication Date: 2011
• Copyright Date: 2011
• Extent: 1 online resource (206 pages)
• Subjects: 320.01; Social & political philosophy; Political ideologies; Philosophy -- Political; Political Science -- Political Ideologies -- General; Political Science -- General; Political science & theory; Political science -- Philosophy; Subjectivity
• Languages: English
• ISBNs: 9781441162748; 1441162747
• Related ISBNs: 9781441144157
• Access Rights: Legal Deposit; Only available on premises controlled by the deposit library and to one user at any one time; The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK).
• Access Usage: Restricted: Printing from this resource is governed by The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK) and UK copyright law currently in force.