Product Description: This book familiarizes the English-speaking reader with the debate on the originality of Gramsci’s thought and its importance for the development of Marxist theory. The contributors present the principal viewpoints regarding Gramsci’s theoretical contribution to Marxism, focussing in particular on his advances in the study of the superstructures, and discussing his relation to Marx and Lenin and his influence in Eurocommunism...read more

Product Description: In the years since the publication of the Prison Notebooks, the interest and importance of Antonio Gramsci’s contribution to Marxist thought and political analysis has become widely recognised. The concern to explore and identify the structures of the capitalist state is both the principal characteristic of Gramsci’s theoretical and political writings and also the inspiration for his writings on Italian history...read more

Since its original publication fifteen years ago, this hugely influential book has been at the centre of much debate. The arguments and controversies it has aroused are, furthermore, far from abating: the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, the emergence of new social and political identities linked to the transformation of late capitalism, and the crisis of a left-wing project whose essentialist underpinnings have increasingly come under fire have, if anything, made more relevant than ever the theoretical perspective that the book proposes. Moreover the political project of ‘radical and plural democracy’ that it advocates provides a much-needed antidote to the attempts to formulate a Third Way capable of overcoming the classical opposition between Left and Right.Updated with a new preface, this is a fundamental text for understanding the workings of hegemony and grasping the nature of contemporary social struggles and their significance for democratic theory.

From the theory of “deliberative democracy” to the politics of the “third way,” the present Zeitgeist is characterised by an attempt to negate the inherently conflictual nature of democratic politics. Political thought and practice are stifled by a misconceived search fro consensus and the promotion of a bland social unanimity which, as Chantal Mouffe shows, far from being the sign of progress, constitute a serious threat for democratic institutions. Indeed, in many countries this ‘consensus of the centre’ is providing a platform for the growth of populist right-wing parties which, by presenting themselves as the only ‘anti-establishment’ forces, are trying to occupy the terrain of contestation deserted by the left.Taking issue with the work of John Rawls and Jurgen Habermas on one side, and with the tenets of the third way as practised by Tony Blair and theorised by Anthony Giddens on the other, Mouffe brings to the fore the paradoxical nature of modern liberal democracy. Against those who affirm that, with the demise of the left/right divide, antagonism has been eliminated from contemporary post-industrial societies and that an all-inclusive politics has become possible, she argues that the category of the ‘adversary’ plays a central role in the very dynamics of modern democracy. Drawing on the work of Wittgenstein and Derrida, and engaging with the provocative theses of Carl Schmitt, she proposes a new understanding of democracy in terms of ‘agonistic pluralism’ which acknowledges the ineradicability of antagonism and the impossibility of a final resolution of conflicts.

Carl Schmitt’s thought serves as a warning against the dangers of complacency entailed by triumphant liberalism. His conception of politics is a sharp challenge to those who believe that there is a third way between the left and right and that the increasing moralization of political discourse constitutes a great advance for democracy. Schmitt reminds us forcefully that the essence of politics is struggle and that the distinction between friend and enemy cannot be abolished.Contributions: Gregoris Ananiadis, Agostino Carrino, Catherine Colliot-Thélène, Jorge Dotti, David Dyzenhaus, Paul Hirst, Jean-François Kervégan, Chantal Mouffe, Ulrich Preuss, Slavoj Žižek and an important essay by Carl Schmitt available in English for the first time.

Product Description: El mundo actual está sufriendo diversas convulsiones: conflictos étnicos, religiosos y nacionalistas que a su vez coinciden con la crisis de eficacia y legitimidad que están atravesando las democracias occidentales. Pues bien, en el presente libro, Chantal Mouffe arguye que la teoría de la democracia liberal es incapaz de comprender esos problemas, sobre todo dada su concepción inadecuada y esencialista de la política...read more

Product Description: The themes of citizenship and community are today at the center of a fierce debate as both left and right try to mobilize them for their cause. For the left such notions are crucial in all the current attempts to redefine political struggle through extending and deepening democracy...read more