Law, Democracy and the Crisis of Foundation

This book addresses the crisis of the juridical-political foundation within contemporary democracies.

Although modernity is the age of foundation, it is marked by what Carl Schmitt referred to as a peculiar ‘dialectic of presence and absence’ – and this is true even for those theories that seem to be the greatest supporters of the necessity of some kind of foundation, such as the Hobbesian commonwealth. This instability of foundation is inherent in the concept of ‘political representation’, which brings into being an idea – such as that of ‘nation’, ‘people’ or ‘popular will’ – which cannot, however, actually correspond to any empirical reality. Is it possible, then, to identify an absolute, certain and stable foundation capable of generating and guaranteeing the persistence of a legal and political structure? Or does this very question bind us to the history of an impossibility: a foundational absence, or void, whose presence is only now being strongly felt? Engaging both historical and contemporary perspectives, this book addresses the problem of foundation through both deconstructive and constructive perspectives – which respectively aim to challenge the very idea of foundation, or to overcome its contemporary crisis in order to present new, post-foundational possibilities.

This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers working in the areas of legal and political theory.