Conflict legitimation, not consensus, is modern democracy’s condition of existence
Evidence
One of the keys to the thesis of agonistic pluralism is that, far from jeopardizing democracy, agonistic confrontation is in fact its very condition of existence. Modern democracy’s specificity lies in the recognition and legitimation of conRia and the refusal to suppress it by imposing an authoritarian order. Breaking with the symbolic representation of society as an organic body - which was characteristic of the holist mode of social organization - a democratic society acknowledges the pluralism of values, the ‘disenchantment of the world’ diagnosed by Max Weber and the unavoidable conRicts that it entails. — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 463
Categorization
- XREF: Inverts the liberal-deliberative premise that democracy rests on rational consensus; ties to Weber’s disenchantment. — connects to: Democracy channels contention into bargaining over claim-making boundaries — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1311; In mature democracies contention turns nonviolent unless state agents block it — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 428; Adversarial conflict among legitimate positions is democracy’s condition, not its danger — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 338 (+13 more)
Broader Connections
- Democracy is defined by legitimizing rather than suppressing political conflict
#expands(0.93) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 502 - Undecidability, not consensus, is the condition of democratic freedom
#expands(0.90) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 150 - Democracy’s task is converting antagonism into agonism, not erasing it
#expands(0.88) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 584 - Rejecting consensus as impossible protects democracy from closure
#corroborates(0.85) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 146 - Power-legitimation must come from within democracy itself once unifying worldviews fade
#corroborates(0.85) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 92 - Democratic negotiation is agonistic struggle without final resolution
#expands(0.84) - Common allegiance to pluralist democratic principles is necessarily a conflictual consensus
#qualifies(0.82) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 464