Democracy and Political Theory

This book examines the central questions of democracy and politics in modern societies. Through an analysis of some of the key texts of 19th and 20th century thought - from Marx, Michelet and de Tocqueville to Hannah Arendt - the author explores the ambiguities of democracy, the nature of human rights, the idea and the reality of revolution, the emergence of totalitarianism and the changing relations between politics, religion and the image of the body. While developing a highly original account of the nature of politics and power in modern societies, he links political reflection to the interpretation of history as an open, indeterminate process of which we are part. This work should interest specialists in social and political theory and philosophers.

1. On Modern Democracy The Question of Democracy Human Rights and the Welfare State Hannah Arendt and the Question of the Political 2. On Revolution. The Revolutionary Terror Interpreting Revolution with the French Revolution Edgar Quinet: The Revolution that Failed The Revolution as Principle and as Individual Rereading The Communist Manifesto 3. On freedom Reversibility: Political Freedom and the Freedom of the Individual From Equality to Freedom: Fragments of an Interpretation of Democracy in America 4. On the Irreducible Element. The Permanence of the Theologico-political? The death of immortality?