Democracy Against the State: Marx and the Machiavellian MovementIn the "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right,” the young Marx elliptically alludes to a "true democracy" whose advent would go hand in hand with the disappearance of the state. Miguel Abensour’s rigorous interpretation of this seminal text reveals an “unknown Marx” who undermines the identification of democracy with the state and defends a historically occluded form of politics. True democracy does not entail the political and economic power of the state, but it does not dream of a post-political society either. On the contrary, the battle of democracy is waged by a demos that invents a public sphere of permanent struggles, a politics that counters political bureaucracy and representation. Democracy is "won" by a people forewarned that any dissolution of the political realm in its independence, any subordination to the state, is tantamount to annihilating the site for gaining and regaining a genuinely human existence. In this explicitly heterodox reading of Marx, Miguel Abensour proposes a theory of "insurgent" democracy that makes political liberty synonymous with a living critique of domination. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
1 THE UTOPIA OF THE RATIONAL STATE | 14 |
2 POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE | 24 |
3 FROM THE 1843 CRISIS TO THE CRITICISM OF POLITICS | 31 |
4 A READING HYPOTHESIS | 38 |
5 THE FOUR CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE DEMOCRACY | 47 |
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Democracy Against the State: Marx and the Machiavellian Movement Miguel Abensour Limited preview - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
Abensour according action advent Arendt brings civic humanism civil society Claude Lefort conception conflict constitution criticism of politics Critique of Hegel's democ determination dimension disappearance domination emancipation enigma essence existence Feuerbach foundation French Friedrich Engels G. W. F. Hegel Gallimard Hannah Arendt Hegel Hegel's Philosophy Hegelian human Ibid idea institution insurgent democracy interpretation Jacques Rancière Karl Marx liberty logic Ludwig Feuerbach Machiavellian Marx's Marxism Maximilien Rubel metaphysics modern monarchy movement nature objectification opposition paradox Paris Paris Commune people’s permanent philosophy of action Philosophy of Right Pierre Clastres political community political element political form political philosophy political realm political thought Politique position precisely principle of anarchy question radical reduction regime relation relationship religion reveals revolutionary savage democracy sense social realm specific spirit stake State’s struggle theory thinking tion totalitarian totality trans transformation true democracy truth unity utopian whole demos writings