Political representation and non-citizenship: the impact of excluded subjects on democratic frameworks of representation

Abstract

Participatory democratic models fail to acknowledge that ‘citizenship’ emerges within a repressive context that has at its foundations a necessity to exclude. Hamilton’s argument that freedom is power through political representation takes for granted that citizenship is (i) inherently democratic and (ii) the best framework from which to conceive of freedom and power. Contemporary challenges of increasing non-citizenship have exposed the limitations of arguments that still conceive of freedom as citizen-power. The paper critiques Hamilton’s uncritical use of citizenship and the consequences thereafter for its relevance to a contemporary democratic project.

Notes

1 See paper by Andres Henao-Castro ‘Lucrezia’s virtu and political representation as symptom: A dialogue with Lawrence Hamilton’s Freedom is Power’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Moshibudi Motimele

Moshibudi Motimele is a sessional lecturer and PhD candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. E-mail: [email protected]