Democracy at a standstill: the idea of democracy as a dialectic of theory and practice

Abstract

This article compares Noonan's needs-based normative model of democracy and Hardt's and Negri's ontological model of the constituent power of the multitude. Both models are rejected as theoretical accounts of the idea of democracy on the ground that they over-rely on a linear, teleological conception of time. The article argues that time matters for the way we understand democracy, and contends that the meaning of democracy is better grasped through Benjamin's messianic concept of time as rupture of the historical continuum. This logic of temporal and historical change underscores an alternative idea of democracy as dialectic of theory and practice that is inherent to the notion of the will of the people. However, the article contends that the understanding of the idea of democracy in terms of the messianic highlights at the same time the limits of democracy, as it focuses on the political aspect of domination, but fails to grasp the systemic contradictions of capitalism.