Description
Book SynopsisThe preeminent political theorist Étienne Balibar examines what he calls "equaliberty," the fundamental tension in modern democracies between equality and liberty, humanity and citizenship.
Trade Review". . . this is a timely publication. It identifies and expands upon a crucial tension within liberal citizenship that runs through the course of history, but which seems particularly prescient today, especially within Europe. . . . Rare for a book with such a philosophical argument, the connection to these issues is clear and prescient. Indeed, this continual problematization of the conditions for citizenship might be considered to be an exemplary manifestation of what it means to be a critical citizen." -- Jonathan Joseph * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
"This outstanding book is Étienne Balibar at his most powerfully synthetic and politically incisive. In
Equaliberty Balibar works his way through the house of left-wing political thought, performing a sort of philosophical spring cleaning. He disarticulates complex concepts only to reassemble them in better, more usable combinations. It is a call to action."—
Bruce Robbins, author of
Perpetual War: Cosmopolitanism from the Viewpoint of Violence“This is a wonderful speculative text in the best tradition of French political philosophy. But it is not only this: Balibar is also in dialogue with problems of leftist American social and political philosophy and especially its focus on the violences of neoliberalism. Finally, in a style that, by design, knows no country, Balibar’s Equaliberty works to update the enduring insights of Marx and Marxism in a deep reflection for our times." -- Amy E. Wendling * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *
"Today many of the key concepts of our political vocabulary—including equality, freedom, democracy, and emancipation—seem so corrupted and vacuous that they are almost unusable. Étienne Balibar makes an important contribution by engaging critically and restoring these and other crucial political concepts.
Equaliberty is a major book that displays Balibar's exemplary combination of erudition and clear, accessible argument."—
Michael Hardt, coauthor of the books
Declaration,
Commonwealth,
Multitude, and
Empire“Balibar may accept the frameworks and language of really existing capitalism, but he does so in order to pull at their threads and to refocus critique upon tired concepts. But a revolutionary fervour (although this too does not escape theorizing) runs throughout these essays. . . . It is Balibar’s persuasive analysis of who counts as a citizen and who does not, and who is granted rights and who must take them another way, that makes these essays.” -- Nina Power * Radical Philosophy *
“A well-written, if still extremely dense, collection of theoretical investigations that lead towards more than just mere armchair philosophising; rather, to a motivated call for sophisticated and impassioned activism through normative research agendas for graduate students and academic professionals, specifically focusing on the future of cosmopolitics and trans-/de-nationalised notions of citizenship.” -- Bryant William Sculos * Political Studies Review *
Table of ContentsForeword vii
Introduction. The Antimony of Citizenship 1
Part One. The Statement and Institution of Rights 33
1. The Proposition of Equaliberty 35
2. The Reversal of Possessive Individualism 67
3. New Reflections on Equaliberty: Two Lessons 99
Part Two. Sovereignty, Emancipation, Community (Some Critiques) 133
4. What Is Political Philosophy? Notes For a Topography 135
5. Communism and Citizenship: On Nicos Poulantzas 145
6. Hannah Arendt, the Right to Have Rights, and Civil Disobedience 165
7. Populism and Politics: The Return of the Contract 187
Part Three. For a Democracy Without Exclusion 197
8. What Are the Excluded Excluded From? 199
9. Dissonances within
Laïcité: The New "Headscarf Affair" 209
10. Secularism and Universality: The Liberal Paradox 223
11. Uprisings in the
Banlieues 231
12. Toward Co-Citizenship 259
Conclusion. Resistance, Insurrection, Insubordination 277
Notes 295
Works Cited 343
Index
