Democracy and Subjective Rights: Democracy Without Demos - Softcover

Colliot-Thelene, Catherine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1786613069 ISBN 13: 9781786613066

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield International/ECPR Press, 2019

Synopsis

This book critically investigates the notion of democracy without demos by unravelling the link that modern history has established between the concepts of democracy and the sovereignty of the people. This task is imposed on us by globalization. The individualization of the subject of rights is the result of the destruction of regimes of special rights of ancient societies by the centralizing action of a territorial power. This individualization, because it implies equality, has created a new form of political subjectivity that has been the driving force of the democratization of democracies during the 19th and 20th centuries. Democracy and subjective rights discusses how asserting itself as the only guarantor of rights, the modern state has also nationalized citizenship. However, the author argues, the legal and judicial monopoly of the nation-state is weakened today by the multiplication and heterogeneity of the powers on which the rights of individuals depend. This situation forces us to denationalize citizenship without sacrificing, however, the specific form of political subjectivity that the individualization of rights has made possible.

About this title

About the Author

Catherine Colliot-Thélène is Professor Emeritus at the University Rennes 1.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield International/ECPR Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1786613069
• ISBN 13: 9781786613066
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 198