Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-218) and index.
Contents:
Introduction : Why council democracy , why now? -- The historical councils in twentieth-century Europe -- Political theory of council democracy from Bakunin to Luxemburg -- Institutionising the instituting power? : Castoriadis and the councils -- Self-limitation and democracy : Lefort's model of council democracy -- Between liberal constitutionalism and permanent revolution : Arendt's republic of councils -- The politics of form : council democracy between transformatory politics and political form -- Conclusion : council democracy and contemporary movements of occupation.
Summary:
"his book examines the historical emergence of the council system in Russia and Germany by the end of the First World War, reconstructing the intellectual history of council democracy in 20th century political theory, and providing in-depth analysis of council democracy in the political thought of Cornelius Castoriadis, Claude Lefort and Hannah Arendt.Popp-Madsen argues that council democracy can productively be interpreted through the prism of constituent power: the form-giving power of the people to decide on their own institutional forms of political co-existence. Whereas other interpreters of constituent power claim an unbridgeable gap between constituent power and constituted power, this book asserts that council democracy discloses a historically grounded way of institutionalising the constituent power. Council democracy, in this interpretation, becomes a way of controlling the constituent power without completely exhausting it, thereby giving the citizenry continual access to the powers of self-transformation, co-creation and constituent freedom"-- Back cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.