Universal and particular are inseparably interdependent in democratic politics
Evidence
However, the fact is that neither individuals as free-floating entities nor communities as solidaristic wholes occupy the social space on their own. Each is constituted in and through its relation to that which is other and different from itself. If this is not to result in either “the war of all against all” or a segregated communalism, then we must look for how both the greater recognition of difference and greater equality and justice for all can become part of a common “horizon.” It seems to be the case, as Laclau suggests, both that “the universal is incommensurable with the particular” and that the former “cannot exist without the latter.” Far from undermining democracy, this so-called “failure” is “the precondition for democracy” (Laclau 1996). — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 378
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- XREF:
- QUESTION: Worth chasing: how does this dialectic translate into concrete multicultural institutional design beyond the theoretical formulation?