POLITIKE POSTMODERNE
POLITICS OF POSTMODERNITY

Author(s): Bernard Harbaš
Subject(s): Political Theory, Sociology, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, History and theory of political science, Sociology of Politics, Philosophy of Law, Sociology of Law
Published by: Logos – Centar za kulturu I edukaciju
Keywords: violence; totalitarianism; aestheticization of politics; the political; sovereignty; deconstruction; community; communion; law; postmodernism;
Summary/Abstract: This book presents the ideas of those thinkers who can be said to belong to or are close to the ideas of postmodernism. What binds them is the critique of common understandings of traditional political categories. The goal of postmodernists is to deconstruct previous theories about common life, the importance of democratic decision-making, the rule of law, civil society, political representation, etc. Postmodernists point out that it is necessary to think beyond classical and official politics through concepts such as singular plural, difference, schism, multiplicity and unfinished community, and they see an alternative to classical politics in constant and unconditional opening to the other and different. For them, the mentioned concepts are not a magic wand with which modern society will suddenly transform into Kant's cosmopolitan citizenship, but a new way of thinking about life in a community, and that in a community that is not determined by territory and nation. In this sense, their point of view is that every policy should start from the individual as such, different and specific. It is not a liberal policy that promotes individual rights to personality and property, but a practice of unconditional responsibility towards the other, regardless of his specificity. The other must be seen as incomparable, immeasurable and absolute.This book elaborates opinions of the thinkers belonging to or closely related to the ideas of postmodernism. What connects them is the critique of common understandings of traditional political categories. Postmodernists aim to disfigure and deconstruct previous theories about common life, importance of democratic decision-making, rule of law, civil society, political representativeness, and to point to the necessity of thinking beyond classic and official politics. This is to be done through notions such as singular plural, differance, differend, plurality and inoperative community, whereas the alternative to classic politics they find in constant and unconditional openness towards the other and different. The notions are no magic wands which will make the modern society suddenly transform into Kant’s cosmopolitan citizenship, but a new way of thinking life in a community which is not defined by territory or nation. In that sense, their standpoint is that each politics should start from the individual as such, different and specific. They don’t promote liberal politics that claims individual rights to the personhood and property, but a practice of unconditional responsibility towards the other, regardless of his/her specificity. The other must be seen as incomparable, immeasurable, and absolute.

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