Claude Lefort's Political Philosophy

This book proposes a new interpretation of Claude Leforts thought focusing on his phenomenological method. Although all scholars recognize the influence of Merleau-Ponty, so far no one has demonstrated the fundamental coherence between Merleau-Pontys theory and the main concepts proposed by Lefort; in particular between the concept of institution and the definitions of social and democracy. If Merleau-Ponty uses the idea of institution to think beyond the division between subject and object, to think together continuity and difference, permanence and change, this same concept allows Lefort to understand society as both conflict and unity. From this starting point, this study will attempt to clarify Leforts concept of the political and his interpretations of modernity, humanism, and the work of Niccol Machiavelli. These very concepts will show the difference from structuralism, Michel Foucaults contemporary theory and theories of immanence. At the same time this study highlightsan internal tension in Leforts own thinking: between autonomy and experience, institution and insurgence.