Reclaiming Democracy

Albena Azmanova teaches political theory at the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies where she heads the postgraduate program in international political economy.Mihaela Mihai is the 50th Anniversary Lecturer at the University of York, UK. Her research interests cut across political theory, political science and law.

• Selected Contents: Introduction Albena Azmanova and Mihaela Mihai Part 1: Loci of Democracy 1. Agonism and the Crisis of Representative Democracy Paulina Tambakaki 2. Freedom, Democracy, and Working Life Keith Breen 3. Technology: The Promises of Communicative Capitalism Jodi Dean 4. Ungovernability Claus Offe Part 2: Modes of Democratic Politics 5. Democracy, Law and Global Finance: A Legal and Institutional Perspective Tamara Lothian 6. Democracy and the Absolute Power of Disembedded Financial Markets Alessandro Ferrara 7. Success and Failure in the Deliberative EconomyArjun Appadurai 8. The Promise of Global Transparency: Between Information and Emancipation Matthew Fluck Part 3: Democratic Critique 9. Neoliberalism, the Street, and the Forum Noëlle McAfee 10. Founding Political Critique in a Post-Political World: Towards a Renewal of Utopian Energies Nikolas Kompridis 11. From the Assembly to the Agora: Non-Linear Politics and the Politicisation of Everyday Life David Chandler

"The multifaceted dimensions of the contemporary crisis of democracy emerge powerfully in this excellent collection of thoughtful contributions from leading scholars in contemporary political theory. Contributors seem to be engaging in an extended dialogue that reaches across the full range of theoretical, historical, social, and political challenges that neoliberalism, managerialism, and global financial upheavals pose to democratic life, while at the same time offering possibilities for renewal by claiming a "right to politics." A timely and important book."—Mary G Dietz, Northwestern University