Politics of Dialogue : Non-consensual Democracy and Critical Community - Leszek Koczanowicz

Politics of Dialogue

Non-consensual Democracy and Critical Community

By: Leszek Koczanowicz

Hardcover | 10 December 2014

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A Bakhtinian reassessment of the roles of dialogue, community and democracy in political theory

Contemporary democracy is in crisis. People believe less and less in a system of democratic institutions that can cope with today's social problems. Leszek Koczanowicz sheds new light on this problem, using the ideas of M. M. Bakhtin and others to show that dialogue in democracy can transcend both antagonistic and consensual perspectives.

Koczanowicz provides an overview of the history of the dialogue/antagonism opposition as it is embedded in modern political theory, and the concept of dialogue in contemporary political theory. He goes on to demonstrate that Bakhtin's theory of dialogism can introduce a new quality into political theory, allowing us to overcome the liberalism/communitarianism debate. To conclude, he introduces a concept of 'critical community' - a dialogical, self-reflective community critical of its own tradition - to show that collective identities can be constructed in critical dialogue with the tradition and values of community.
Industry Reviews
Drawing on the resources of the American pragmatist tradition, Bakhtin's dialogic notion of interaction, and his own experiences in post-Communist Eastern Europe, the distinguished Polish political theorist Leszek Koczanowiz enters the current conversation about the nature of democracy with a new and arresting argument. Contesting wan proceduralism and the telos of deliberative consensus, he offers instead a model of a critical community that emerges out of the practices of everyday life and fosters the understanding of difference rather than the demand for full agreement.--Martin Jay, University of California, Berkeley

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Published: 30th June 2026

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