ABSTRACT
This short reply to Dupuis-Déri engages with the Rancierian idea of “intrinsic equality” as a way to challenge problematic republican conceptions of the demos as narrowly defined as consent. As Dupuis-Déri argues, republicanism hinges upon an understanding of “the people” as irrational, susceptible to demagoguery, factious or unable to support the common good. It classifies and orders. Radical democracy has no place for such categorizations. It is fundamentally a process of declassification and becoming, never a total, always “more or less than what it is.” The recognition of intrinsic equality means that the only basis of democracy is its very lack of a foundation. The radical Left, therefore, needs to confront systematic trivializations and marginalizations of etceteras by conceptualizing democracy in terms of the intrinsic equality of all people. Failing to do so empties democracy of its radical purchase.
This is a reply to:
Dupuis-Déri, F. “Who’s afraid of the people? The debate between political agoraphobia and political agoraphilia.” Global Discourse. https://doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2018.1468607.
