The Constructivist Turn in Political Representation

Abstract

Explores the 'constructivist turn': political representation's reorientation toward the constitutive or mobilising aspects of mass democracy This volume traces the roots of the constructivist turn in the distinct (and competing) traditions of Continental and Anglo-American Western political thought. Divided into three thematic parts, these 13 newly commissioned essays develop the constructivist turn as a central concept. They advance the insight that there can be no democratic politics without representation; constituencies or groups exist as agents of democratic politics only insofar as they are represented. Key Features Offers comparative accounts of the genealogy of the constructivist turn in the rival intellectual traditions of continental democratic theory and Anglo-American deliberative democracy Features the first English translation of Claude Lefort’s essay 'Democracy and Representation' Critically examines the political implications of constructivist research for legitimating potentially undemocratic aspects of global politics Re-examines democratic uprisings that have been dismissed as 'protest movements' from the constructivist position