Democracy and Defiance

Bryan Nelson is a Liberal Arts & Sciences Professor at Humber College, Toronto, Canada.

Nelson’s book is imbued with both a sense of urgency and an almost timeless feeling. It asks us to rethink democracy, because the all-too-established notions that try to tame it fail at grasping its "savage" nature. This task is demanded by our times, but it is also intrinsic to democracy itself.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction. The antinomies of politics A. Towards democracy’s anarchic conditionDemocracy as critiquePlato discovers the political: Rancière’s reading of the allegory of the shipPhilosophy’s sovereignty over politics: Abensour’s reading of the allegory of the caveThe polemics of the polis: the Greek invention of politicsDemocracy’s anarchic condition: a new political ontologyMaking politics thinkableB. Dissolution of the archêIn the name of democracy: the ‘kratos’ of the ‘demos’On the universality of the problem of the archêThe nature of rule: an interpretation of Plato’s LawsCommandment and commencement: the strange logic of the archê principleIn summary: archic governmentEnter democracy: what does it mean to be against the archê?Understanding democracy’s ‘anarchic title’Democracy as ‘political’ or ‘anarchic’ governmentAnarchy: the infinite openingC. To think democracy otherwise: Claude Lefort and savage democracyOn the status of political philosophyPierre Clastres and the logic of being againstThe essence of democracy: a question of interpretationDemocratic revolution: Tocqueville and LefortThe ‘principle of anarchy’ and the emancipatory act of politicsPermanent contestation: savage democracy and human rightsThinking democracy savage: a philosophical exerciseD. Democratisation of the sensible: democracy against the police On the many forms of being-againstPolitics and the police: a radical dichotomyFoucault, the police and governmentalityThe government of the sensible and the symbolic constitution of society: Rancière’s concept of the police‘Logical revolt:’ towards a theory of the political subjectOn political namesThe ‘history’ or ‘tradition’ of emancipationE. The politics of emancipation: democracy against the State Social domination and political emancipation: an introduction to Abensour’s general approach to democracyFrom the Frankfurt School to Lefort and Machiavelli: Abensour’s critical political philosophyUtopia and democracyAgainst the State: Clastres contra HobbesMarx’s ‘Machiavellian moment:’ Hegel, sovereignty and political alienation‘True’ democracy and the reduction of the StateInsurgent democracyIn summary: Rancière’s democracy against the police and Abensour’s democracy against the StateConclusion. "Hic et nunc:" the use of philosophy and the critique of the presentBibliography