Rancière, Jacques: Rancière believes democracy is neither a
governmental or societal structure. Rather, it is the underlying principle
which makes both possible. For
Rancière, democracy is the equality
at the heart of inequality. Democracy, equality, is the underlying condition of
politics, and not a goal or structure to be attained.
For Rancière, “the power
of the people, the power of those who have no special entitlement to exercise
power, is the basis for what makes politics thinkable” (79). In other words,
the very idea of politics—whether referring to government or individual acts of
agency—assumes that regular persons interact with other regular persons through
the systems of authority and power (such as money, influence, or even race and
gender). If politics is only done by the strongest, richest, and wisest, then
it is not politics at all, but oligarchy. Politics therefore begins with the
assumption that everyone is equal, and people only become unequal through the application of troubled systems.
Political action is the taking back of influence from those with no special
entitlement by others with no special entitlement. According to Ranciere,
people have mistakenly called certain governments democratic because they claim
to seek equality. But for Ranciere, the role of all governments, inherently, is
to resist the democratic efforts of the public to expand the public realm, and
to keep as few voices in charge as possible. Governments (even “democratic”
ones) are inherently threatened by democracy (equality): Democracy (as government)
is threatened by the demos (the people). If democracy is truly the radical equality of each individual and their
desires and efforts in public sphere, then Rancière rightly associates
democracy with a sort of anarchy. The principle of equality and democracy acts
as an anarchic force that bursts through the limits and undermines the power
structures of public sphere. Neither anarchy nor democracy ever truly prevail
as a form a government. Rather, they are wrenches “of equality jammed…into the
gears of domination, (they are) what keep politics from simply turning into law
enforcement.” - Rebekah SinclairReferences:
- “Democracies Against Democracy,” in Democracy in What State. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.
- Hatred of Democracy. London: Verso, 2006.
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