Conflict is the essence of the political.
A parliamentary democracy constantly makes this visible through elections, public debate, and the disagreements within and between the majority and minority. All of this still exists, and yet we are increasingly living in a non-political system.
Market sovereignty depoliticizes in a direct way, and neoliberal policies do the same by absolutizing the economic value of efficiency. The political also evaporates when consensus becomes the norm. This is the case in deliberative democracy with randomly selected citizens, the darling of left-liberals. Avoiding disagreement also dominates in governance, or network governance with private and public stakeholders who, along with experts, devise solutions.
80 pages, softcover.
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