Abstract

AbstractThis article examines the critique of deliberative democracy leveled by William Connolly. Drawing on both recent findings in cognitive science as well on Gilles Deleuze's cosmological pluralism, Connolly argues that deliberative democracy, and the contemporary left more generally, is guilty of intellectualism for overlooking the embodied, visceral register of political judgment. Going back to Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus, this article reconstructs the working assumptions of Connolly's critique and argues that it unwittingly leads to an indefensible embrace of manipulation. Against his micropolitics of visceral manipulation, I propose an alternative route for realizing Connolly's politics of agonistic negotiation in the form of a critical theory of the public sphere.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2012-09-01
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.45.3.0269
Open Access
Closed
Topics

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

Also cites 21 works outside this index ↓
  1. Brown, Wendy. 2006. “American Nightmare: Neoliberalism, Neoconservativism, and De-Democratization.” Political…
  2. Chambers, Simone. 2009. “Rhetoric and the Public Sphere: Has Deliberative Democracy Abandoned the Mass Public…
  3. Connolly, William E. 2006. “Experience and Experiment.” Daedalus 135 (3): 67–75.
  4. Connolly, William E. 2008. Capitalism and Christianity, American Style. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  5. Fish, Stanley. 1999. “Mutual Respect as a Device of Exclusion.” In Deliberative Politics, ed. Stephen Macedo,…
  6. Forst, Rainer. 2001. “The Rule of Reasons: Three Models of Deliberative Democracy.” Ratio Juris 14 (4): 345–78.
  7. Gunnell, John G. 2007. “Are We Losing Our Minds? Cognitive Science and the Study of Politics.” Political Theo…
  8. Habermas, Jürgen. 1996. Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy. Tr…
  9. Honig, Bonnie. 2007. “Between Decision and Deliberation.” American Political Science Review 101 (1): 1–17.
  10. Krause, Sharon. 2006. “Brains, Citizens, and Democracy's New Nobility.” Theory and Event 9 (1).
  11. Lakoff, George. 2002. Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Ch…
  12. Mansbridge, Jane. 1999. “Everyday Talk in the Deliberative System.” In Deliberative Politics: Essays on Democ…
  13. Massumi, Brian. 2005. “Fear (The Spectrum Said).” Positions 13 (1): 31–48.
  14. Mengue, Philippe. 2003. Deleuze et la question de la démocratie. Paris: L'Harmattan.
  15. Miller, William Ian. 1997. The Anatomy of Disgust. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  16. Rawls, John. 1997. “The Idea of Public Reason Revisited.” University of Chicago Law Review 64 (3): 765–807.
  17. Sanders, Lynn. 1997. “Against Deliberation.” Political Theory 25 (3): 347–76.
  18. Thiele, Leslie. 2006. The Heart of Judgement: Practical Wisdom, Neuroscience, and Narrative. Cambridge: Cambr…
  19. Walzer, Michael. 1999. “Deliberation, and What Else?” In Deliberative Politics, ed. Stephen Macedo, 58–69. Ox…
  20. Warner, Michael. 2002. Publics and Counterpublics. New York: Zone Books.
  21. Young, Iris Marion. 1996. “Communication and the Other: Beyond Deliberative Democracy.” In Democracy and Diff…
CrossRef global citation count: 7 View in citation network →