Forms of Equality

The changing idea of civil society: Models from the Polish democratic opposition

“…As far back as 1957 Kolakowski, who 96 Kolakowski, effectively rejecting Marxism as a 'scientific theory' and embracing a limited pluralism, called, in Fehér and Heller's words, for a 'constantly renewed querying of the dominant social imaginary'. 97 He was also clear that political action can never be exhausted by political parties and that the movement character of the left had to be recaptured. 98 In all of these themes, there is a clear echo of later work by both the Polish theorists and the New Left in general, i.e.…”

“…97 He was also clear that political action can never be exhausted by political parties and that the movement character of the left had to be recaptured. 98 In all of these themes, there is a clear echo of later work by both the Polish theorists and the New Left in general, i.e. an emphasis upon democratic pluralism and upon the role of social movements in democratization.…”

Governing “Democratic” Equality

“… 14. For similar conceptions of democratic equality, see Schaar (1967), Feher and Heller (1977), Gould (2001), Rancière (2006). My hope is to be realistically utopian in John Rawls’s sense of “probing the limits of practical political possibility” (Rawls 2001, 4). …”