Re-Imagining the Political

This final chapter investigates the relationship between concepts of political community and political agency from the perspectives of post-foundationalism and non-sovereignty. By doing so, it highlights the political relevance of formulations of the non-sovereign self and concepts of relational ethics. While ‘weak’ philosophical anthropologies seek to ground political and moral thought, they also maintain their own contingency and situatedness. Even though there is therefore no necessary connection between ‘weak ontological’ notions of selfhood and any particular form of political organisation, the acknowledgement of the contingency of the self enables a fuller appreciation of democracy as a contingent form of political organisation. In other words, while the assertion of contingent ontological grounds does not imply any specific ethical or political position, democracy itself is inherently postfoundational. The symbolic arrangement of democracy is founded on the institutional recognition of the impossibility of finding a final justification or ground for the way a society is organised politically. While no societies and no political regimes are actually built upon firm foundations (at least if we dismiss doctrines of divine rights or the necessity of history), only democracy inherently accepts and recognises this condition.