Chantall Mouffe

Communicative planning initiatives are being increasingly implemented across both the North and South of the globe. Influenced by Habermas’ theory of communicative rationality, this form of planning concentrates upon consensus building between different signified interest groups. The paper explores how communicative planning in the eastern Caribbean country of St Lucia disciplines people's conduct from the perspectives of Foucault's concept of governmentality and Laclau and Mouffe's theorization of hegemony. Linking the latter to an analysis of Massey's non-bounded conceptualization of the local, it is argued that, as geographers, we may do better to concentrate less upon the deterministic effects of common styles of government and more upon the moments which bring their themes temporarily and spatially into being. In doing so, some initial steps are made toward proposing the concept of space-time-politics, drawing upon Wittgenstein's work on ‘aspect-seeing’. In concluding, I argue that we should not see terms such as ‘consensus’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘the local’ as pre-existing moral justifications for political action, but instead as the product of relations of space-time-politics.

O presente artigo trata da crise democrática e do Zeitgeist pós-político, à luz do modelo de democracia radical proposto por Chantal Mouffe. Assim, ele tem por objetivo apresentar as principais contribuições desse modelo, consideradas fundamentais para se pensar o contexto atual. Para tanto, em primeiro lugar, define-se quais são os elementos caracterizadores da pós-política e as suas consequências negativas para a democracia. Em seguida, analisa-se a ascensão eralismo e de pós-política. Por fim, com base nesses aspectos, apresenta-se a proposta de recuperação e radicalização da democracia elaborada por Mouffe. Como resultado, considera-se que, em um cenário de autoritarismo e de ascensão do populismo de direita, como é o caso brasileiro, é necessário que todos os democratas, a partir de um modelo adversarial plural e agonista, como o proposto por Mouffe, promovam uma crítica a respeito de como têm enfrentado a hegemonia capitalista e neoliberal. Mais do que isso, é preciso que, a partir do dissenso, eles também busquem superar essas deficiências, recuperar o político, a própria democracia e, assim, radicalizar os valores democráticos.

This article addresses the democratic crisis and the post-political Zeitgeist, in the light of the radical democracy model proposed by Chantal Mouffe. Thus, it aims to present the main contributions of this model considered essential for understanding the current scenario. First, the characterizing elements of post-politics and their negative consequences for democracy are-of neoliberalism and post-political crisis. Finally, based on the referred aspects, Mouffe's proposal for the recovery and radicalization of democracy is presented. As a result, in a scenario of authoritarianism and the rise of right-wing populism, as is the case in Brazil, all democrats must promote a critique of how they have faced capitalist and neoliberal hegemony, based on a plural adversarial and agonistic model, as proposed by Mouffe. Furthermore, based on dissent, they must also seek to overcome these deficiencies, recover the political, democracy itself, and thus, radicalize democratic values.