Explores the roots and implications of the 'constructivist turn': the reorientation of scholarship on mass democracy toward the constitutive or mobilising aspects of political representation. Traces the roots of the constructivist turn in the distinct (and competing) traditions of Continental and Anglo-American Western political thought. Critically examines the normative challenges raised by the constructivist turn. Debates the adequacy and consequences of the concept for Western democratic institutions, movements and norms. Features a new English translation of Claude Lefort's previously untranslated 'Democracy and Representation'.
Lisa Disch is Full Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is the author of
Hannah Arendt and the Limits of Philosophy (Cornell University Press 1994),
The Tyranny of the Two-Party System (Columbia University Press 2002), and co-editor with Mary Hawkesworth of the
Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory (Oxford University Press 2016). She works on feminist theory, democratic theory, and environmental political theory.
Mathijs van de Sande is Lecturer in Political Philosophy at Radboud University in Nijmegen. In 2017, he obtained his PhD at the Institute of Philosophy in Leuven with a thesis on the prefigurative repertoire of recent assembly movements (such as Occupy Wall Street). His main research interests are radical democratic theory (broadly conceived), political representation, activism, and social movement theory.
Nadia Urbinati is Full Professor of Political Theory at Columbia University, New York. She works on democratic theory; in particular, representative democracy, populism, plebiscitary leadership, and post-party representation.
Lisa Disch is Professor of Political Science and teaches political theory at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (US). Author of Hannah Arendt and the Limits of Philosophy (Cornell University Press 1994), The Tyranny of the Two-Party System (Columbia University Press 2002), and co-editor (with Mary Hawkesworth) of the Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory (Oxford University Press 2016), she works on feminist theory, democratic theory, and environmental political theory
Mathijs van de Sande teaches political philosophy at Radboud University Nijmegen. In 2017, he obtained his PhD at the Institute of Philosophy in Leuven with a thesis on the prefigurative repertoire of recent assembly movements, such as Occupy Wall Street. His main research interests are radical democratic theory, political representation, activism and social movement theory.
Nadia Urbinati teaches political theory at Columbia University, New York (US). She works on democratic theory, and in particular representative democracy, populism, plebiscitary leadership, post-party representation.
Nadia Urbinati is Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory and Hellenic Studies at Columbia University. She is the author of Democracy Disfigured, Democracy: Representative Democracy: Principles and Genealogy (Harvard University Press, 2014) and of Mill on Democracy: From the Athenian Polis to Representative Government (University of Chicago Press, 2002).
