Visions of Council Democracy: Castoriadis, Lefort, Arendt

by Benjamin Ask Popp-Madsen

Uncovering the neglected theories of the council system in the 20 th century This book examines the historical emergence of the council system in Russia and Germany by the end of the First World War, reconstructing the intellectual history of council democracy in 20 th century political theory, and providing in-depth analysis of council democracy in the political thought of Cornelius Castoriadis, Claude Lefort and Hannah Arendt. Popp-Madsen argues that council democracy can productively be interpreted through the prism of constituent the form-giving power of the people to decide on their own institutional forms of political co-existence. Whereas other interpreters of constituent power claim an unbridgeable gap between constituent power and constituted power, this book asserts that council democracy discloses a historically grounded way of institutionalising the constituent power. Council democracy, in this interpretation, becomes a way of controlling the constituent power without completely exhausting it, thereby giving the citizenry continual access to the powers of self-transformation, co-creation and constituent freedom.

204 pages, Hardcover

Published March 16, 2021

Reviews

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Largely an exegetical work which doesn’t juxtapose theories to the historical realities of the councils as much as I would like. A great chapter on Lefort, and his wariness of constituent power without constitutional form. Distinguishes between him and Castoriadis well.