Democracy and the Lacanian Left: relations of ambivalence

Throughout this book, side by side with my critical explorations of the various theoretical projects associated with the Lacanian Left, side by side with the analyses of central socio-political phenomena undertaken from a Lacanian perspective, I have also been sketching – in an admittedly indirect way – some of the preconditions for a democratic ethics of the political, an orientation drawing on both Lacanian theory and theories of radical democracy. In fact, forging a link between the Lacanian ethics of psychoanalysis and radical democratic theory has already been one of the main aims of Lacan and the Political. Today, in the emerging post-democratic context, this orientation remains as topical as ever. At the same time, however, the need for a more thorough elaboration of certain aspects of the radical democratic project has never been so pressing. In the few years since my earlier work was published, the world has witnessed an increase in democratic rhetoric coupled with an unprecedented assault on the two traditional pillars of modern democracy: equality and liberty.