Mouffe Chantal. The Democratic Paradox

Verso, 2000. — 154 p. — ISBN: 1-8-984-78-79-0The essays collected in this volume have been written in the last five years. Most of them have already been published. some in a different version. One of them. a paper given at a conference appears here for the first time. The introduction and the conclusion were written especially for the book but incorporate ideas developed in several anicles which are not included.
I am conscious that, as far as some of the central themes are concerned. there is a certain amount of reiteration. If I have decided to leave them in their original form. it is because it would have been impossible to eliminate those repetitions without affecting the intelligibility of the argument made in each piece.
The issues discussed in The Democratic Paradox constitute the continuation of a reflection initiated joindy with Ernesto Laclau Socialist StraUO and later pursued. The political events which have taken place since this last book was published. with a growing tendency for sociaI-democratic patties to move towards a consensual politics of the centre, have reinforced my conviction that it is urgent for political theory to provide an alternative framework to the dominant one in democratic political theory.