Abstract
Fanaticism presents one of the most important political problems of our times. Yet contemporary democratic theory has had surprisingly little to say about it because it is overwhelmingly concerned with conflict that takes place within a liberal ethical and political framework. It largely ignores conflict between competing frameworks, which is precisely the terrain on which fanaticism appears. The political thought of the abolitionist fanatic Wendell Phillips deepens democratic theory by showing that fanaticism is an approach to politics that seeks to establish hegemony in a struggle between competing ethico-political frameworks, an approach that can sometimes expand democracy rather than threaten it. The lesson of Phillips is that there can be democratic potential in the fanatical encouragement of intractable conflict.
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