POWER, ACTION, AND RULE IN RADICAL DEMOCRATIC THEORY. Political Science Fall 2011, Mondays 1:30 4:20 pm, Pick 506

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1 Patchen Markell Pick Hall , Office hours: W 3 5 or by appointment POWER, ACTION, AND RULE IN RADICAL DEMOCRATIC THEORY Political Science Fall 2011, Mondays 1:30 4:20 pm, Pick 506 What makes radical democratic theory radical? One possibility: democratic theory becomes radical not, or not only, when it adopts political stances far outside the mainstream, but when it treats democracy as something more than simply the name of one specific way of organizing coercive state power that is, of one type of political regime among others. In this seminar, we shall consider the work of a selection of contemporary theorists for whom understanding and/or practicing democracy as a principle of political life requires rethinking the ontology of politics itself: for instance, by distinguishing between politics in the ordinary sense and the political ; or by questioning the centrality of hierarchical relations of command and obedience to political life; or by reclaiming the concept of power to refer to generative capacities rather than the ability to coerce; or by reconsidering the nature of action and its place in a larger account of social and political transformation. Much of this iteration of the seminar will focus on works by three European philosophers, all with a Marxist heritage, whose approaches to political ontology sometimes, but not always, undertaken in the name of democracy have become influential in English-language political theory over the last decade: Jacques Rancière, Antonio Negri (alone and in collaboration with Michael Hardt), and Alain Badiou. One aim of the course is simply to apply the collective energy of a seminar to understanding some challenging texts by these theorists. At the same time, our reading will also situate these texts in several overlapping ways: in relation to other important strands of, and figures in, radical democratic theory and political ontology; in relation to some of these authors own points of reference in the canons of European philosophy and radical politics; in relation to postwar political and intellectual history; and in relation to contemporary political events. Beyond the central question suggested by the title of the course what pictures of the nature of politics itself, and of central political phenomena like power, rule, and action, stand behind various articulations of the idea of democracy? we shall also pursue such other questions as: what is the place of aesthetic experience in democratic politics? How has the trajectory of radical democratic theory been inflected by the changing fates of Marxist and anti-capitalist politics in the postwar era? Is democracy itself an adequate rubric under which to imagine and pursue political transformation, or should it be supplemented or even replaced by communism? How should (and how shouldn t) we think about the relations of philosophy to politics and of democratic theory to democratic practice? Is the role of democratic theory to guide practice in genuinely emancipatory directions? What other purposes might it have? This is a limited-enrollment, by-consent seminar designed for graduate students; in the event of a scarcity of places, priority may be given to Ph.D. students and students in Political Science.

2 TEXTS: The following books have been ordered at the Seminary Coop, and will also be placed on reserve at Regenstein. All other readings will be available through the course s Chalk site. Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (Verso) Bonnie Honig, Emergency Politics (Princeton) Jacques Rancière, Disagreement (Minnesota) Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Commonwealth (Harvard) Alain Badiou, Metapolitics (Verso) Slavoj Zizek, First as Tragedy, Then As Farce (Verso) WRITING ASSIGNMENTS: A seminar paper of pages, due on December 9 (unless we have made prior arrangements for you to take an incomplete). I am generally happy to approve requests for incompletes, as long as you propose a tentative new due date for yourself, and keep me advised if you need to change it. The paper may be on any topic of your choice that substantially engages a subset of the material on the syllabus, but should be discussed with me in advance in person or over , preferably before the Thanksgiving break. GRADES: Your grade for the seminar paper will determine your grade for the course. However, any student who is absent for three or more sessions of the seminar, except in cases of medical or other documentable emergency, will only be graded on a pass-fail basis. Plagarism is grounds for failing the course. WEEKLY MEETINGS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS: Week 1 (Sept. 26): Introduction No reading. Week 2 (Oct. 3): Paradox, I: Democracy and the political 1. Paul Ricoeur, The Political Paradox, in History and Truth, Geoff Eley, 1956 and 1968: It Moves After All, in Forging Democracy, and Claude Lefort, The Question of Democracy, in Democracy and Political Theory, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Jean-Luc Nancy, Opening Address and The Retreat of the Political, in Retreating the Political, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, 1 14, William E. Connolly, The Ethos of Democratization, in Laclau: A Critical Reader, ed. Critchley and Marchart, Week 3 (Oct. 10): Paradox, II: Sovereignty, power, decision 1. Andreas Kalyvas, Hegemonic Sovereignty: Carl Schmitt, Antonio Gramsci, and the Constituent Prince, Journal of Political Ideologies 5, 3 (2000): Jacques Derrida, Conjuring Marxism, in Specters of Marx,

3 3. Jacques Derrida, This Mad Truth : The Just Name of Friendship, in The Politics of Friendship, Jacques Derrida, The Other of Democracy, in Rogues, Wendy Brown, Sovereign Hesitations, in Derrida and the Time of the Political, ed. Cheah and Guerlac, Bonnie Honig, Emergency Politics, 1 39, , Week 4 (Oct. 17): Rancière, I 1. Jacques Rancière, Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy (all). 2. Jodi Dean, Politics without Politics, in Reading Rancière, ed. Bowman and Stamp, Samuel Chambers, Jacques Rancière and the Problem of Pure Politics, European Journal of Political Theory 10, 3 (2011): Week 5 (Oct. 24): Rancière, II 1. Louis Althusser, Marxism and Humanism, in For Marx, Jacques Rancière, On the Theory of Ideology (The Politics of Althusser), Radical Philosophy 7 (Spring 1974): Jacques Rancière, The Myth of the Artisan: Critical Reflections on a Category of Social History, International Labor and Working-Class History 24 (Fall 1983): Jacques Rancière, The Emancipated Spectator, in The Emancipated Spectator, Jacques Rancière, Aesthetics as Politics, in Aesthetics and its Discontents, Jacques Rancière, Does Democracy Mean Something? in Dissensus, Kristin Ross, Historicizing Untimeliness, in Jacques Rancière: History, Politics, Aesthetics, ed. Rockwell and Watts, Alberto Toscano, Anti-Sociology and its Limits, in Reading Rancière, ed. Bowman and Stamp, Week 6 (Oct. 31): Negri, I 1. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Commonwealth, Preface, 3 63, Malcolm Bull, The Limits of Multitude, New Left Review, new series, 35 (September October 2005): Bruce Robbins, Multitude, Are You There? n+1 issue 10 (December 2010) Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Arabs Are Democracy s New Pioneers, The Guardian (Febuary 25, 2011) Malcolm Harris, The Multitude Claps with One Hand, Exodus in Egypt, and Other Musings on Insurrection, destructural (February 1, 2011). 02/01/the-multitude-claps-with-one-hand-exodus-in-egypt-and-other-musings-oninsurrection/

4 Week 7 (Nov. 7): Negri, II At a minimum, you should read all items designated with a numeral only, and either the items designated with A or the items designated with B, though you are encouraged to read everything if you can. In any event, reading in numerical order is recommended. 1. Bifo [Franco Berardi], Anatomy of Autonomy, in Autonomia: Post-Political Politics, ed. Lotringer and Marazzi, A2. Antonio Negri, Domination and Sabotage: On the Marxist Method of Social Transformation, in Books for Burning, B3. Antonio Negri, The Political Treatise, or, The Foundation of Modern Democracy and To Conclude: Spinoza and the Postmoderns, in Subversive Spinozas, 9 27 and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Potentialities of a Constituent Power, in Labor of Dionysos: A Critique of the State-Form, Antonio Negri, Art and Culture in the Age of Empire and the Time of the Multitudes, SubStance 36, 1 (2007): A6. Kathi Weeks, The Refusal of Work as Demand and Perspective, in The Philosophy of Antonio Negri, vol. 1, Resistance in Practice, ed. Murphy and Mustapha, A7. Alberto Toscano, Always Already Only Now: Negri and the Biopolitical, in The Philosophy of Antonio Negri, vol. 2, Revolution in Theory, ed. Murphy and Mustapha, B8. Jacques Rancière, The People or the Multitudes? in Dissensus, B9. Ernesto Laclau, Can Immanence Explain Social Struggles? in Empire s New Clothes: Reading Hardt and Negri, ed. Passavant and Dean, William Connolly, Pluralism and Sovereignty, in Pluralism, Benjamin Noys, Immeasurable Life: Negri, in The Persistence of the Negative, Week 8 (November 14): Badiou, I 1. Alain Badiou, The Ethic of Truths, in Ethics, Alain Badiou, Metapolitics, xxxi-106, Alain Badiou, We Need a Popular Discipline : Contemporary Politics and the Crisis of the Negative, Critical Inquiry 34 (Summer 2008): Alain Badiou, Tunisie, Egypte: quand un vent d est balaie l arrogance de l Occident [Tunisia, Egypt: When a wind from the east sweeps away the arrogance of the West], Le Monde (February 18, 2011); English translation on Verso Books website Daniel Bensaïd, Alain Badiou and the Miracle of the Event, in Think Again: Alain Badiou and the Future of Philosophy, ed. Hallward, Bruno Bosteels, Post-Maoism: Badiou and Politics, Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 13, no. 3 (Winter 2005): Peter Hallward, The Politics of Prescription, South Atlantic Quarterly 104, no. 4 (Fall 2005):

5 Week 9 (November 21): Badiou, II 1. Alain Badiou, Handbook of Inaesthetics, Alain Badiou, Search for a Method and A New World. Yes, but When? in The Century, 1 10, Alain Badiou, Third Sketch of a Manifesto of Affirmationist Art, in Polemics, Alain Badiou, Metapolitics, Alain Badiou, The Lessons of Jacques Rancière: Knowledge and Power After the Storm, in Jacques Rancière: History, Politics, Aesthetics, ed. Rockhill and Watts, Jacques Rancière, Alain Badiou s Inaesthetics: The Torsions of Modernism, in Aesthetics and its Discontents, Jacques Rancière, The Use of Distinctions, in Dissensus, John Roberts, On the Limits of Negation in Badiou s Theory of Art, Journal of Visual Arts Practice 7, no. 3 (2008): Week 10 (November 28): Democracy, Capitalism, Communism 1. William E. Connolly, The Evangelical-Capitalist Resonance Machine, Political Theory 33, no. 6 (December 2005): Wendy Brown, Sovereignty and the Return of the Repressed, in The New Pluralism: William Connolly and the Contemporary Global Condition, ed. Campbell and Schoolman, Jodi Dean, Democracy: A Knot of Hope and Despair, in Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies, Alain Badiou, Must the Communist Hypothesis Be Abandoned? in The Yearbook of Comparative Literature 55 (2009): Antonio Negri, Communism: Some Thoughts on the Concept and Practice, in The Idea of Communism, ed. Douzinas and Zizek, Jacques Rancière, Communists without Communism? in The Idea of Communism, Slavoj Zizek, The Communist Hypothesis, in First as Tragedy, Then As Farce, Steven Shaviro, Communism at Birbeck, Criticism 51, no. 1 (Winter 2009): Radhika Desai, The New Communists of the Commons: Twenty-First Century Proudhonists, International Critical Thought 1, no. 2 (2011):