Description
Book SynopsisThere has been a lively debate amongst political theorists about whether certain liberal concepts of democracy are so idealized that they lack relevance to real politics.
Trade Review"McNay offers an insightful and persuasive critique of the social weightlessness of contemporary theories of radical democracy and an impassioned plea for grounding democratic theory in an account power, domination, and embodied social suffering. The Misguided Search for the Political is a radical critique of radical democratic theory, and an important new work from a provocative and original critical theorist."
Amy Allen, Professor of Philosophy and Women's and Gender Studies, Dartmouth College"The book can be considered a success, as an incisive piece of critical theory but also thanks to the accessible prose as a critical introduction to the different radical democratic theories."
Political Studies ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgements vi
Introduction 1
1 Suffering and Social Weightlessness 28
2 The Unbearable Lightness of Theory: Mouffe’s Dissociative Agonism 67
3 Freedom beyond the Subject: Feminism, Agency and Agonism 98
4 All or Nothing: Rancière’s Ruptural Agonism 132
5 Pluralism and Practice: The Existential Agonism of Connolly and Tully 168
Conclusion: Political Theory as Critique: Reconsidering the Negative 207
Notes 220
References 226
Index 241
