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Liberal democracy today, having aligned itself with capitalism, is producing a generalized feeling of weariness and disillusionment with government among the citizenry of many countries. Because of a decades-long march of globalized capitalism, economic oligarchies have gained oppressive levels of political power, and as a result, the economic needs of many people around the world have been neglected. It then becomes essential to remember that our ability to change society emerges from our power to formulate different questions; or, in this case, alternative understandings of democracy. This book draws together a variety of alternative theories of democracies in a quest to expose readers to a selection of the most exciting and innovative new approaches to politics today. The consideration of these leading alternative conceptualizations of democracy is important, as it is now common to see xenophobic and racist rhetoric using the platform of liberal democracy to threaten ideasof plurality, diversity, equality, and economic justice. In looking at four different models of democracy (utopian democracy, radical democracy, republican democracy, and plural democracy) this book argues that encounters with alternate conceptualizations of democracy is necessary if citizens and scholars are going to understand the constellation of possibilities that exist for inclusive, plural, economically equal, and just societies.
List of contents
1. Utopia and Democracy.- 2. The Map of the World and the Coffin of Utopia.- 3. What is New and Old in Our Democracies?.- 4. Politics of the Resentment in Job and Antigone at the Origin of Politics.- 5. From Oligarchy to Democracy: The Mythology of European Democracy and the League of Six Nations.- 6. Revolutionary Potential in Agamben, Negri, and Marx.- 7. Communitarian Democracy.- 8. Trump's Democratic Tyranny and Tocqueville's Prophesy.- 9. Republicanizing Democracy: An Antidote to Weariness?.- 10. Democracy, Disillusionment, and the New Social Question: An Approximation to the Mexican Experience.- 11. Plural Democracy and the Foreigner.- 12. The Devil, Double Consciousness, and the Democratic Individual.- 13. Latin American Democracy in the 21st Century: Between Crisis and Alternatives.
About the author
Obed Frausto is Assistant Professor of Honors Humanities at Ball State University, USA.
Jason Powell is Assistant Professor of Honors Humanities at Ball State University, USA.
Sarah Vitale is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Ball State University, USA.
