ABSTRACT
The chapter focuses on the crisis of the formerly hegemonic discursive formation and illiberalism, including the intellectual relation of this way of thinking to the contradictions of the liberal approach. It illustrates the tension between liberal (metaphysical and ‘apolitical’) and democratic (heretical and ‘political’) elements within demo-liberal theory and practice. The author makes original use of research tools developed by such post-Marxist scholars as Claude Lefort, Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau. The chapter also addresses the problem of the relationship of the crisis of demoliberalism in post-communist countries with similar phenomena in the West. The final section presents the dispute over the nature of illiberal constitutionalism (reconstructing and critiquing various theoretical positions).
