Abstract
As the political passion of the 1960s disappeared in the 1970s and the debates on totalitarianism were fused into the debates on the crimes of the revolutionary age, the consensual democracy celebrated its victory in the 1990s. But as the consensual democracy began to produce racism in Europe and war and destruction in the Middle East, communists such as Rancière, Balibar, and Badiou introduced their perspectives on democracy. Whereas Rancière defended democracy as an egalitarian logic calling into question the institutionalized logic of the consensual democracy, Balibar defended democracy as initiatives taken from below forcing the institutions to make changes from above. For Badiou, the communist experience indicates that democracy can become the condition of possibility of justice and emancipation if it is an expression of the people’s convergence with politics, a politics “without party.”
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Notes
- 1.
Jacques Rancière, La méthode de l’égalité, Entretien avec Laurent Jean-Pierre et Dork Zabunyan (Paris: Bayard, 2012).
- 2.
Michel Foucault in Claire Brièr, Peirre Blamchet, Didier Eribon, Iran: la revolution au nom de Dieu, Suivi D’un Entretien avec Michel Foucalut (Paris: Éditions Du Seul, 1979), pp. 227–228.
- 3.
Kar Newspaper, Sazeman-e cherikhay-e Fadayi-ye Khalq, p. 1 & 11, Shomareh-ye 8, 06, Ordibehesht 1358./April 1979, Kar Newspaper, Sazeman-e cherikha-ye Fadayi-ye Khalq, Shomareh-ye 36, p. 12, 05, Azar 1358/November 1979.
- 4.
See Ervand Abrahamian, Radical Islam: The Iranian Mujahedin and my Islamism and Post-Islamism in Iran: An Intellectual History.
- 5.
Contrary to the majority of Marxist organizations the Peykar Organization argued that the war with Iraq was not a just war. It encouraged the Iranian and the Iraqi working class to turn the war into a class war and encouraged them to turn their guns against the anti-revolutionary forces in power. Paykar no. 73 (Zamimeh), September 1980, pp. 2–5.
- 6.
Haftenameh-ye Rahayi, Sazeman-e Vahdat-e Komunisiti, Sale dovvom Shomareh-ye 50, pp. 7–11, 29 Mehrmah 1359/September 1980, Ranjbar, Organe Hezb-e Ranjbaran-e Iran, Shomareh-ye 103, 27. Shahriver 1359./September 1980. p. 1, Haqiqat Fouqoladeh, Etehadiyeh komunistha-ye Iran, Shomareh-ye 91, 10 Mehr 1359/September 1980, p. 1.
- 7.
Kar, Sazeman-e Cherikha-ye Fadayi-ye Khalq, Shomareh-ye 78, 8 Mehrmah 1359/September 1980, p. 12.
- 8.
Behrooz, Rebels With A Cause, p. xiv.
- 9.
Rancière, The Philosopher and His Poor, p. 86.
- 10.
Rancière, The Philosopher and His Poor, p. 92.
- 11.
Ibid., pp. 94–95.
- 12.
Ibid., pp. 95–96.
- 13.
Ibid., p. 96.
- 14.
Ibid., p. 108.
- 15.
Rancière, The Philosopher and His Poor, p. 152.
- 16.
Ibid., p. 155.
- 17.
Ibid., p. 180.
- 18.
Ibid., p. 181.
- 19.
Ibid., p. 184.
- 20.
Ibid., p. 199.
- 21.
Rancière, The Philosopher and His Poor, pp. 199–200.
- 22.
Ibid., pp. 203–204.
- 23.
Ibid., p. 219.
- 24.
Ibid., pp. 219–220.
- 25.
Rancière, The Philosopher and His Poor, pp. 224–225.
- 26.
Jacques Rancière, Disagreement (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota, 1999), p. 6.
- 27.
Ibid., pp. 25–26.
- 28.
Ibid., pp. 27–28.
- 29.
Rancière, Disagreement, pp. 29–30.
- 30.
Ibid., pp. 31–32.
- 31.
Ibid., p. 35.
- 32.
Ibid., pp. 38–40.
- 33.
Ibid., p. 61.
- 34.
Ibid., p. 99.
- 35.
Rancière, Disagreement, pp. 100–101.
- 36.
Ibid., pp. 105–106.
- 37.
Ibid., p. 108.
- 38.
Ibid., p. 112.
- 39.
Ibid., pp. 116–117.
- 40.
Ibid., pp. 118–120.
- 41.
Ibid., pp. 124–126.
- 42.
Rancière, Disagreement, pp. 126–127.
- 43.
Étienne Balibar, The Philosophy of Marx (New York: Verso, 2007), p. 17.
- 44.
Ibid., pp. 21–22.
- 45.
Ibid., pp. 36–37.
- 46.
Ibid., pp. 40–41.
- 47.
Balibar, The Philosophy of Marx, pp. 50–51.
- 48.
Ibid., p. 55.
- 49.
Ibid., p. 59.
- 50.
Ibid., pp. 77–78.
- 51.
Balibar, The Philosophy of Marx, pp. 104–105.
- 52.
Ibid., p. 106.
- 53.
Ibid., pp. 106–107.
- 54.
Ibid., pp. 108–110.
- 55.
Balibar, The Philosophy of Marx, p. 118.
- 56.
Ibid., pp. 119–120.
- 57.
Ibid., p. 121.
- 58.
Ibid., p. 122.
- 59.
Étienne Balibar, Philosophy and the Frontiers of the Political, A biographical-theoretical interview with Emanuela Fornari (European Journal of Philosophy and Public Debate Iris, 3 April 2010, Firenze University Press), pp. 31–32.
- 60.
Ibid., pp. 32–33.
- 61.
Ibid., p. 34.
- 62.
Ibid., p. 45.
- 63.
Balibar, Philosophy and the Frontiers of the Political, p. 48.
- 64.
Ibid., pp. 59–60.
- 65.
Alain Badiou, Metapolitics (New York: Verso, 2006), p. 12.
- 66.
Badiou, Metapolitics, p. 23.
- 67.
Ibid., p. 32.
- 68.
Ibid., p. 68.
- 69.
Ibid., p. 70.
- 70.
Ibid., pp. 71–72.
- 71.
Ibid., p. 73.
- 72.
Ibid., pp. 75–77.
- 73.
Ibid., pp. 79–80.
- 74.
Ibid., pp. 96–97.
- 75.
Badiou, Metapolitics, p. 98.
- 76.
Ibid., p. 99.
- 77.
Ibid.
- 78.
Ibid., p. 100.
- 79.
Ibid., p. 111.
- 80.
Ibid., p. 115.
- 81.
Ibid., p. 116.
- 82.
Badiou, Metapolitics, p. 119.
- 83.
Ibid., p. 121.
- 84.
Ibid., pp. 121–122.
- 85.
Ibid., p. 123.
- 86.
Alain Badiou, The Communist Hypothesis, p. 279.
- 87.
Badiou, Metapolitics, pp. 124–126.
- 88.
Ibid., p. 126.
- 89.
Ibid., p. 129.
- 90.
Ibid., pp. 129–130.
- 91.
Ibid., p. 130.
- 92.
Ibid., p. 131.
- 93.
Badiou, Metapolitics, p. 134.
- 94.
Ibid., p. 135.
- 95.
Ibid., pp. 136–137.
- 96.
Ibid., pp. 141–143.
- 97.
Ibid., p. 152.
- 98.
Alain Badiou, Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil (London: Verso, 2001), p. 101.
- 99.
Alain Badiou, The Communist Hypothesis, p. 155.
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Shahibzadeh, Y. (2019). From Communism to Democracy. In: Marxism and Left-Wing Politics in Europe and Iran. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92522-6_11
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