Post-Modernism, Agency, and Democracy

Abstract

This essay presents a general summary of post-modern philosophy’s conception of agency. It argues that while post-modern philosophers offer formidable intellectual tools for criticizing contemporary restrictions on agency, their conception falters for a variety of philosophical and political reasons. This implies we should develop a more robust conception of agency to provide a foundation for progressive politics. The essay concludes by analyzing several recent steps to develop such a conception.

Democracy and the challenges of globalisation: a theoretical framework

“…Ghasemi (2019) remarks that in postmodernity, each nation-state would design and implement a democratic model to recognize its own social, political, cultural and economic orientations. Therefore, democracy is invoked by postmodern theory as a way to move a population away from the "conservative" autocratic narratives of tradition-oriented philosophies that favor totalizing views (Rorty, 1999;McManus, 2018). In turn, globalisation represents a significant change in the special scope of social relations and organisations, on an interregional or intercontinental scale (Held & McGrew, 2000), so both concepts are closely related.…”