Consensus is shaped and structured by unequal power rather than freely formed

Evidence

In the interplay of opinions, freely given and exchanged, to which the idea of consensus always makes its ritual bow, some voices and opinions exhibit greater weight, resonance, defining and limiting power—for the pure consensus of classical liberal-democratic theory has long since given way to the reality of the more shaped and structured consensus, constructed in the unequal exchange between the unorganized masses and the great organizing centers of power and opinion—the consensus of the “big battalions,” so to speak. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 919

Categorization

• XREF: Directly overturns the classical liberal-democratic account of consensus; connects to the reader’s interest in how Hall’s cultural theory challenges economic orthodoxies about the free marketplace of ideas. — connects to: Deliberative democracy is agonal dissent atop constitutional consensus, not consensus-seeking talk. — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 19; The people’s consensus and scientific consensus are the same legitimation model — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 251; Consensus does violence; invention arises from dissension. — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 95 (+16 more)