User:Countrymike/Masters Thesis/Mouffe Notes

Mouffe, Chantal (1992). Democratic Citizenship and the Political Community. In Dimensions of Radical Democracy.

Liberalism vs Civic Republicanism

Liberal view is that 'citizenship is the capacity for each person to form, revise and rationally pursue his/her definition of the good.'

Communitarians object to this on the grounds that it seems to privilege self-interest rather than a "natural"(?) desire to join with others to pursue common action towards a common good. Does not allow for the notion that community might constitute the identity of individuals; only allows for 'instrumental' community.

Communitarians then believe in the revival of civic republican view of politics that puts an emphasis on the notion of a public good, prior to the individuals desires and interests. Notion mostly replaced by Liberalism

Republicanism and Liberalism

Pluralism, individual liberty, separation of church and state, development of civil society are all constitutive of modern democracies. Require distinction between the private and the public domain, the realm of morality and the realm of politics. Mouffe suggests that a a modern democratic political community cannot be organized around a single idea of a common good. Individual liberty cannot be sacraficed. Communitarian critique of liberalism becomes dangerously conservative.

ideas of the 'common good' are argued by liberals to have totalitarian implications. These were enjoyed by pre-modern society and are 'nostalgic relics' which should be discarded.

Rawls argues that individual rights can't be sacraficed for the sake of general welfare, as is the case with Utilitarianism. Justice should impose restrictions on what 'goods' individuals are allowed to pursue and such principles need respect plurality of competing conceptions of the good.

modern democracy is characterized by absense of substantive common good.

"On the one side, liberalism's exclusive concern with individuals and their rights has not provided content and guidance for the exercise of those rights. This has led to the devaluation of civic action, of common concern, which has caused an increasing lack of social cohesion in democratic societies." Mouffe, p.230 <== GOOD QUOTE

what makes us citizens of liberal democratic society is not a idea of the good, but a set of political principles specific to that tradition: the principles of freedom and equality for all. There will always as well be competing interpretations of these principles.

"discursive surfaces" - political community, community, state, etc.

encounters between the "private" and the "public". <-- might work for interpretation of "music" in community radio. The projection of private likes/pleasures into the public arena.

radical democratic citizen concern with equality and liberty should inform actions in all areas of social life. No sphere is immune from those concerns.

private/public individual/citizen