18 - Modern Critics of Democracy

Summary

This chapter explores the critiques of modern liberal democracy presented by Carl Schmitt and Michel Foucault. Both thinkers challenge the foundational premises of liberal democracy, questioning the role of the individual citizen as a political agent. Foucault, through his concept of power, challenged the view of the modern individual as a free political agent. For Schmitt, the rivalry between friend and foe is so deep that it politicizes all other areas. In his view, antagonism between communities is the driving force of political life. The analysis extends to Bruno Latour, who challenges the dualistic cosmology inherent in modern democracy. Latour proposes a secular monistic cosmology, blurring distinctions between Nature/Culture, individuals and objects. He criticizes the reliance on external facts and on the separation between subject and object. Latour proposes the mother tongue as a basis for commonsense, but unlike the perception of liberal democracy, it does not rely on a scientific epistemology of cause and effect or objectivity. The chapter contends that the decay of democratic practices and the widening gap between democratic ideals and realities may necessitate novel imaginaries.