Conclusion: Past Agonies and Present Openings of Freedom

Abstract

Since the outbreak of modern ‘democratic revolutions’ in the late eighteenth century, freedom and equality have been affirmed as the guiding principles of an emancipated society. But, by way of a transcendentalization of the immanent, these premises were envisaged less as an actual condition and more as an unrealized commitment. In a multiplicity of social and political relations, freedom and equality were cast as an ‘unfinished project’, spawning a plurality of struggles for the redemption of unfulfilled promises (Laclau and Mouffe, 1985: 154–6; Balibar, 1990; Habermas, 1990c; Habermas, 1997; Callinicos, 2000: 22–5). Workers, women, civil rights and anti-racist campaigns, oppressed cultural minorities and nationalities staked public claims to the universalization of freedom, initiating reformist or revolutionary fights to attain it. The way to emancipation lay along various paths: the extension of the democratic franchise; the breaking apart of restrictive social norms; increased control over social conditions; and the institution of new rights and provisions that would accommodate different styles of living. But the broader intent of these battles was the same, as was the fact that they called into question solidified institutions which were often enshrined as inevitable, universal or laws of nature.KeywordsFree AssociationFree SocietyCreative PraxisDemocratic RevolutionUnfulfilled PromiseThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.