Adversarial conflict among legitimate positions is democracy’s condition, not its danger

Evidence

Democratic citizenship can take many diverse forms and such a diversity, far from being a danger for democracy, is in fact its very condition of existence. This wiU, of course, create conflict and it would be a mistake to expect all those different understandings to coexist without dashing. But this struggle will not be one between ‘enemies’ but among ‘adversaries’, since all participants will recognize the positions of the others in the contest as legitimate ones. Such an understanding of democratic politics, which is precisely what I call ‘agonistic pluralism’, is unthinkable within a rationalistic problematic which, by necessity. tcods to erase diversity. — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 338

Categorization

• DEFINE: Central definitional statement of agonistic pluralism: struggle among adversaries who recognize each other’s positions as legitimate, contrasting with enemies.
• XREF: Core of the reader’s project — the enemy/adversary distinction and whether a non-exclusionary pluralist ‘we’ is hereby established (participants recognize others’ legitimacy). — connects to: Conflict legitimation, not consensus, is modern democracy’s condition of existence — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 463; Denying antagonism’s ineradicability is the real threat to democracy — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 102; Democracy’s task is converting antagonism into agonism, not erasing it — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 584 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Conflict legitimation, not consensus, is modern democracy’s condition of existence #corroborates (0.97) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 463
• Democracy is defined by legitimizing rather than suppressing political conflict #corroborates (0.95) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 502
• Denying antagonism’s ineradicability is the real threat to democracy #corroborates (0.92) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 102
• Democracy’s task is converting antagonism into agonism, not erasing it #expands (0.88) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 584
• Democratic politics transforms antagonism between enemies into agonism between adversaries #expands (0.87) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 461
• Rejecting consensus as impossible protects democracy from closure #expands (0.85) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 146
• Undecidability, not consensus, is the condition of democratic freedom #qualifies (0.78) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 150