Democracy and Difference

Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political explores how the rise of identity politics intersects with the global trend toward democratization. This volume examines the challenges that cultural, ethnic, and social movements pose to traditional democratic theory and practice. The book assembles a distinguished group of scholars who reconsider the fundamentals of democracy in light of burgeoning debates on identity and difference. In its first section, leading voices such as Jurgen Habermas, Sheldon S. Wolin, Jane Mansbridge, Seyla Benhabib, Joshua Cohen, and Iris Marion Young offer fresh perspectives on democratic theory. Subsequent sections delve into issues surrounding equality, representation, and cultural identity. Essays by Anne Phillips, Will Kymlicka, Carol C. Gould, Jean L. Cohen, and Nancy Fraser critically assess the relationship between difference and public representation, while contributions by Chantal Mouffe, Bonnie Honig, Fred Dallmayr, Joan B. Landes, and Carlos A. Forment extend the discussion to the interplay of culture and democracy. In the concluding essays, Richard Rorty, Robert A. Dahl, Amy Gutmann, and Benjamin R. Barber reflect on whether democracy requires a robust philosophical foundation.