ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the state of critical political theory in order to demonstrate how, as a discipline, it has become increasingly "depoliticized" or "post-political" over the past 40 years. Traditionally, the issue of depoliticization has been framed as a debate between conventional leftist discourses like Marxism and those emergent in the latter half of the twentieth century considered more heterodox and associated with postmodernism and identity politics. Anyone already familiar with progressive political theory will be well-versed in the crux of this tired deliberation. The chapter describes the critical theory's post-political shift in the character of critical theorizing the "ethical" turn in political theory. It examines the term "ethical" and "post-political" are largely interchangeable. Very briefly, the difference between the "political" and the "ethical" is related to the question of power. While the political recognizes the impossibility of living outside of power relations, the ethical is informed by an imperative to negate power.
