ARTYKUŁY

Tom 11 Nr 2 (2016)

Między polityką a postpolityką. Chantal Mouffe w sprawie demokracji

Małgorzata Borkowska-Nowak

Strony: 37 - 55

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Abstrakt

Between politics and postpolitics. Chantal Mouffe and democracy

This paper presents an analysis of the concept of „political” and its limits by applying Chantal Mouffe’s political philosophy. In particular, the article focuses on the way in which Mouffe’s theoretical project leads us to the critique of the consensual model of contemporary political theory. According to Mouffe, the universalistic and apolitical principles of liberalism are incompatible with the true nature of the politics and its dynamics. Consensualists refuse to accept that political oppositions cannot be resolved by rational means and that our social order is organized on the basis of hegemonic relations. In response, Mouffe attempts to revise Schmitt’s friend/enemy-distinction in order to provide her own model of agonistic pluralism. Although there are significant lacunae in her work, this research suggests that agonistic approach is useful and makes an attractive point of view for the field of democratic theory and practice.