Overview

Contemporary democracy is in crisis. People believe less and less in a system of democratic institutions that can cope with today's social problems. Leszek Koczanowicz sheds new light on this problem, using the ideas of M. M. Bakhtin and others to show that dialogue in democracy can transcend both antagonistic and consensual perspectives.After an overview of the history of the dialogue/ antagonism opposition as it is embedded in modern political theory, and the concept of dialogue in contemporary political theory, the author moves on to demonstrate that Bakhtin's theory of dialogue can introduce a new quality into political theory, allowing us to overcome the liberalism/ communitarianism debate. To conclude, he introduces a concept of 'critical community' to show that collective identities can be constructed in critical dialogue with the tradition and values of community.

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9780748644056

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Drawing on the resources of the American pragmatist tradition, Bakhtin's dialogic notion of interaction, and his own experiences in post-Communist Eastern Europe, the distinguished Polish political theorist Leszek Koczanowiz enters the current conversation about the nature of democracy with a new and arresting argument. Contesting wan proceduralism and the telos of deliberative consensus, he offers instead a model of a critical community that emerges out of the practices of everyday life and fosters the understanding of difference rather than the demand for full agreement.--Martin Jay, University of California, Berkeley

Author Information

Leszek Koczanowicz is Professor in the Warsaw School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland.

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