Radical Democracy, Critical Theory, and the Conditions of Popular Self-Expression

ABSTRACT

In the paper I attempt to close the gap between the tradition of contemporary radical democracy and that of the ideology critique of Critical Theory which is opened by Larry Alan Busk in his Democracy in Spite of the Demos. I argue that, on the one hand, it is not necessarily the case that the affirmation of the two ontological hypotheses Busk identifies as essential to radical democracy – that of the autonomy of the political and that of the universality of doxa – need generate the ambiguities that his text critiques. On the other hand, I show how Adorno and Marcuse themselves remain committed to democracy, seeing socialization in the practice of the latter as fundamental to the development of critical-reflective consciousness. In the final instance, both radical democracy and Critical Theory can be seen to as committed to the same ideal of human autonomy, and equally useful resources for emancipatory thinking.

Keywords:

• Larry Alan Busk
• Democracy in Spite of the Demos
• Cornelius Castoriadis
• Critical Theory
• radical democracy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This is not to say that Marcuse did not elsewhere seriously flirt with the idea of educational dictatorship. See especially here Marcuse (2014b). On the other hand, more often than not he is adamant that educational dictatorship has no place in revolutionary theory or practice. See, for example, Marcuse (1966, 225; 1978, 136).

2 For just one effort to examine the radical democratic potential of such experiments see Holman (2013).