Democratic negotiation among differences must remain an ongoing struggle without final resolution.

Evidence

Formally, this antagonism may not be amenable to resolution in the abstract. But it can be negotiated in practice. A process of final political adjudication between rival definitions of “the good” would be inimical to the whole multicultural project, since its effect would be to constitute every political space as a “war of manoeuvre” between entrenched and absolutized particular differences. The only circumstances in which this is not a simple zero-sum game is within the framework of an agonistic form of democratic negotiation (Mouffe 1993). However, the emphasis needs to be on the “agonistic”—democracy as an ongoing struggle without final resolution. We cannot simply reaffirm “democracy.” But the multicultural question also suggests that the moment of “difference” is essential to defining democracy as a genuinely heterogeneous space. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 375

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘agonistic democracy’ (Mouffe) as the framework for negotiating irreconcilable cultural differences—an ongoing struggle, not a final settlement.
• XREF: Carries Mouffe’s agonism forward as the normative-theoretical frame for how multicultural/difference-based societies negotiate—directly flags the ‘war of manoeuvre’/hegemony vocabulary Gramsci supplies. — connects to: Struggles for political progress are never definitively won. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 536