The Democratic Promise

The Democratic Promise engages Slavoj ieks psychoanalytic and cultural reading of politics and terror, Jacques Rancires concept of the partition of the sensible, Alain Badious ethics and politics, and Jacques Derridas thoughts on philosophy in a time of terror in order to radically rethink politics in and through aesthetics as analogies of political subjectivity. This book interrogates the a priori rights of an individual as universally declared and what these mean in terms of human agency. By revisiting the philosophical writings of the Western continental tradition through the eyes of contemporary political thinkers, it not only delves into the current debate on democracy but also investigates the connection between exceptionality and democracy. Constance Goh asserts here that inter-national or intra-national conflicts persist despite the global emphasis on cultural diversity and consideration because of the politics of recognition. The Democratic Promise also examines the media politics of China and Tibets fraught relations so as to argue that Derridas democracy-to-come necessitates an-other principle, an extra-normative tolerance he calls hostipitality, a host (un)intentionally transporting a singular other via the vehicle of aesthetics.