Redirecting Radical Democracy: From Antagonism to Alienation [Paperback]

Today, alienation manifests itself primarily as precarisation and deprofessionalisation. When the subjects work security or professional autonomy is undermined, relations  not only to others, but also to?one's self? can become inhibited. This book shows that while alienation poses serious problems to modern democracies, it is a form ofsocialsuffering that is particularly difficult for democratic theory  preoccupied by thepolitical to address. The book highlights that not even radical democracy,?which?emphasises?the importance of social resistance, can include the alienated.?The author shows this?is not merely due to the historical emergence of radical democracy and its turn away from traditional socialism, but also to a deeper problem in the theory itself.?Helander argues that in order to address alienation, radical democracy  as both normative theory and political strategy,?must be reformulated starting with its deep assumptions about the subject.USShows that while alienation poses serious problems to modern democracies, it is a form ofsocialsuffering that is particularly difficult for democratic theory  preoccupied by thepolitical to address.Presents?a deeper understanding of the challenges that alienation  manifested in particular as precarisation  poses to democracies and democratic movements todayBrings together leading contemporary work in radical democratic theory and critical theory, in particular the work of Chantal Mouffe and Rahel JaeggiCritically examines the deep assumptions about the individual subject in both radical democracy and the theory of alienationRethinks radical democracy by retrieving elements of the left-wing tradition from which it emerged

Sofia Helander moves radical democratic theory beyond the implausible assumption of a political subject who is already as flexible, strong and conflict-seeking as neoliberalism demands. By recuperating the concept of alienation,Redirecting Radical Democracyml£!