RT Article
T1 Reimagining Democratic Theory for Social Individuals
JF Zygon
VO 46
IS 1
SP 224
OP 245
A1 Winter, Steven L.
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2011
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1827962380
AB Abstract. The Western conception of the individual as a rational, self-directing agent is a mythology that organizes and distorts religion, science, economics, and politics. It produces an abstracted and atomized form of engagement that is fatal to collective self-governance. And it turns democracy into the enemy of equality. Considering the meaning of democracy and autonomy from a perspective that takes the subject as truly social would refocus our attention on the constitutive contexts and practices necessary for the production of citizens who are capable of meaningful self-governance. Under modern conditions, it is in the development of sexual autonomy that we learn how to take initiative with respect to our well-being and do so in concert with others. Where the view of rational agency as the defining characteristic of humanity yields a deracinated view of autonomy, a more realistic, humanistic view that we are, necessarily, social beings yields a view of freedom and self-governance as social phenomena that require empathy, negotiation, compromise, cooperation, and mutual recognition and respect.
K1 social fragmentation
K1 Social Construction
K1 Sexuality
K1 self-governance
K1 Rationality
K1 Individualism
K1 Equality
K1 Dependency
K1 Democracy
K1 Consumerism
K1 Commodification
K1 collectivity
K1 Choice
K1 Autonomy
K1 Agency
DO 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2010.01167.x