301150 Transdemocracy (S) (WiSe 2020/2021)

This book project is geared towards a new understanding of democracy, considering that so-called ‘democratic’ modern decisions negatively affect other peoples and thus become undemocratic. In this sense, the concept of ‘people sovereignty’ has to be redefined. To put it differently, it is no longer sufficient to identify democracy with ‘we the people’. Democracy has to incorporate ‘the others’, and so add the phrase ‘the others, the peoples’ as an expression of its self-understanding.
From an almost exclusive stress on people’s identity, democracy has to switch to an emphasis on peoples’ alterity. My book ‘Transdemocacy’ is planned to be structured in four chapters. The first chapter refers to the antidemocratic character of polity [πολιτεία/politeía] in ancient Greek, considering its exclusionary character. The second chapter is related to the misunderstanding of the concept of democracy in modern liberal revolutions, considering the emphasis on the isolationist concept of people’s sovereignty. The third chapter concerns the negative impact of democratic countries on a their political and social environment through colonialism, neocolonialism and imperialism. The fourth chapter deals with the reflux of ‘garbage’ from the subaltern peripheries to dominating centers, which requires reinvention of democracy.

Requirements for participation, required level

THIS SEMINAR WILL NOT BE CONDUCTED DIGITALLY. BY LATE AUGUST IT WILL BE DECIDED WHETHER MEETINGS IN EARLY FEBRUARY ARE POSSIBLE.