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In this article I evaluate the conceptions of politics and of the political characteristic of radical
pluralism. I argue that in order to comprehend the radically pluralist conception of politics it is
necessary to grasp the post-structuralist critique of the philosophical principle of identity. The
concern with the interface between politics and ethics which is typical of the radical pluralist
approach is also explored. Throughout the article contrast is made with the conventional pluralism of American political science. I conclude with a consideration of the importance of radical
pluralism, with reference to the difficulties this may present for the methods and suppositions of
political science traditionally understood.
Introduction
Over the past few years this journal has facilitated a debate about the nature and
scope of politics. The discussion commenced with an intervention by Alan
Finlayson and James Martin in 1997 (17(3)), which met with a response from
Robin Brown in 1998 (18(3)). The gauntlet was taken up again by Tony Burns in
2000 (20(2)). In this article I seek to contribute to this dispute by introducing the
reflections on politics and the political characteristic of radical pluralism. Radical
pluralism is the most appropriate term to differentiate a series of texts published
during the past decade and a half. These include Connolly (1995a), Keane (1988),
Laclau and Mouffe (1985), Mouffe (1993b), Mouffe (2000), and Young (1990).
These theorists develop contrasting accounts of politics (see for example Mouffes
critique of Young: Mouffe, 1993b, pp. 8586). However, for my current purposes
the similarities are more significant than the differences. Each of these theorists
has developed conceptions of politics guided by the philosophical insights of poststructuralism. The work of William Connolly and of Chantal Mouffe is exemplary
of the approach of radical pluralism: the ideas of these authors will provide the
main sources of reference here. In order to grasp the conception of politics
advanced by radical pluralists, it will be helpful to juxtapose this to the approach
of conventional pluralism.
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(1908), Dahl (1961), Dahl and Lindblom (1976 [1953]), Polsby (1963), and
Truman (1962). As the titles of these books indicate, the pluralism of American
political science equates politics with procedure: with the process of government.
The most celebrated of these texts Robert Dahls Who Governs? explores the decision-making process in New Haven, Connecticut. Dahl examines different issue
areas in which important public decisions are made (Dahl, 1961, p. 64). For the
conventional pluralist this is the material of politics.
The theoretical suppositions of conventional pluralism are perhaps best laid out in
Polsby (1963) and Truman (1962). Politics is conceived as competition between
a plurality of organised interest groups or pressure groups to influence the
outcome of executive decisions (Polsby, 1963, pp. 118 and 121; Truman, 1962,
p. vii). These interested groups are conceived as coalitions of citizens that
have shared attitudes towards particular prevailing issues (Polsby, 1963, p. 115;
Truman, 1962, p. 33). It is important to note that political competition is presumed
to take place between social entities interest groups whose identity is taken as
given. The actual constitution of the identity of these social groupings is of no
concern to the student of politics. This is effectively excluded from the arena of
politics, and is explained as the inevitable outcome of the individuals capacity for
rational action (Polsby, 1963, p. 120). It should also be noted that political competition is understood to take place within certain rules of the game (Truman,
1962, p. 507). These are also treated as given, and therefore beyond the scope of
political adjudication.
Criticisms of conventional pluralism are well known. In response to the pluralist
approach Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz identified the second face of power:
i.e. the power to decide which issues are excluded from or included within the
decision-making agenda (Bachrach and Baratz, 1962, p. 948). Following this,
Steven Lukes emphasised the three-dimensional view of power: i.e. the power to
shape peoples actual preferences (Lukes, 1974, p. 24). Both of these ripostes represent attempts to extend the dimension of politics. Some conventional pluralists
have responded to these criticisms. Commentators now refer variously to
reformed pluralism, to neo pluralism, and to elite pluralism (Dunleavy and
OLeary, 1987, pp. 271318; Manley, 1983, pp. 368393; Marsh, 1995, pp.
277280; Smith, 1990, pp. 311319). In his New Haven study Dahl defined a pluralist system of power or polyarchy as a form of inequality that tends not to
cumulate into definite patterns of subordination (Dahl, 1961, p. 7). In his and in
Charles Lindbloms more recent work there is recognition of the inadequacy of this
model as a description of the power structure characteristic of contemporary
market-based societies (Dahl and Lindblom, 1976, p. xxxvii). Both authors now
emphasise the persistent predominance of business interests or giant firms (Dahl
and Lindblom, 1976, p. xxxvii; Lindblom, 1982, p. 335; Dahl, 1980, p. 25).
Nevertheless, these authors retain a narrow procedural conception of politics. The
disproportionate power of large economic interests is their predominant influence
over executive deliberations and policy outcomes (Dahl and Lindblom, 1976, p.
xxxviii; Lindblom, 1982, p. 335).
It is this restrictive conception of politics which Finlayson and Martin critique in
their contribution to this journal. They draw upon the insights of cultural studies
Political Studies Association, 2003.
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(Staten, 1984, pp. 1617; Derrida, 1976, pp. 3058). The idea of constitutive externality stipulates that the other (that which is alien and outside) is a necessary
condition of self-identity (Derrida, 1976, p. 71). This is because identity is both
inessential and intrinsically relational. In order for an object to have identity it must
be in relation to an other, to an outside. However, precisely because the object
depends upon the other in order to be, the other also frustrates the fullness of the
identity of the object. Paradoxically the necessary other represents both the condition of possibility and impossibility of the objects (complete) identity (Mouffe,
1993a, p. 81). The notion of constitutive externality has profound implications for
understanding the nature of the political. It is not that social objects enter the arena
of the political with fixed and essential identity and only then confront each other.
Instead, the identity of each is forged in its very relations to diverse others. The
construction of social identity is always already political.
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between the descriptive and the prescriptive dimensions of political analysis, with
the interface between politics and ethics. This brings radical pluralism close
to the traditional concerns of political philosophy. However, for radical pluralists
the good is always politically constructed and contextually specific. Ethical concerns never entirely escape politics. There is no moral or ethical de-contextualised
universality, whether of an Aristotelian, Kantian, or Utilitarian inspiration. I
will show that Connolly and Mouffes approaches to the question of the ethicopolitical are distinct but complementary. In her more recent work Mouffe emphasises the potentially disastrous implications of political antagonism. This she
effects through persistent references to the work of Carl Schmitt. According to
Schmitt the criterion of the political is the friend and enemy antithesis (Schmitt,
1996, p. 28). Schmitt conceptualises the political as antagonism. What characterises
his approach, however, is the emphasis on the ever present possibility of actual
physical killing (Schmitt, 1996, pp. 3233). For Mouffe the purpose of good
politics is to defuse the potentially disastrous implications of political antagonism (Mouffe, 2000, p. 101). Antagonism may be ineradicable but it is not
irreducible. What is at stake in the struggle for the ethico-political is the hegemonic
struggle to articulate a common political identity of persons (Mouffe, 1993a,
p. 82).
The struggle for hegemony is the struggle to create a political community of citizens. This is a community that transforms antagonism into agonism (Mouffe,
2000, p. 103). This is an ethico-political community because within the context
of the political community the opponent should be considered not as an enemy to
be destroyed, but as an adversary whose existence is legitimate and must be tolerated (Mouffe, 1993b, p. 82). Agonistic citizens meet paradoxically as friendly
enemies (Mouffe, 2000, p. 13). As David Marsh has recognised, what is at stake
here is the struggle to establish the rules of the game which the conventional
pluralists navely took as given (Marsh, 1998, p. 6). However, given the previous
analysis, it is clear that this ethico-political community will have been constructed
on the basis of some constitutive exclusion. The rules of the game will always be
only partially complete, and subject to the possibility of dissolution through hegemonic political struggle.
Like Mouffe, Connolly is concerned to defuse political antagonism. He is interested in the individual self and her/his attitude towards the other. He prescribes
adult strategies of self modification in the organisation of desire (Connolly,
1995a, p. 58). It is Connollys hope that through this micro-politics of the self
on itself, individuals will develop an ethos of agonistic respect among interdependent and contending constituencies (Connolly, 1993, p. 155 and 1995a, p.
xxi). Connolly and Mouffe have criticised each others approaches to the question
of the interface between politics and ethics. Connolly criticises Mouffe for
being insufficiently forthright in promoting a positive ethical stance (Connolly,
1995b, p. xxi). Mouffe, on the other hand, finds Connollys approach in danger
of collapsing politics into ethics (Mouffe, 2000, p. 107). Nevertheless, despite
their differences, Mouffes and Connollys approaches are complementary.
Mouffes work is instructive for her persistent emphasis upon the hegemonic
struggle to articulate the rules of the game. This is an exemplary form of
politics. However, rules are nothing without their interpretation: Mouffes work
Political Studies Association, 2003.
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Conclusion
I have shown that the approach of radical pluralism is predicated upon a very broad
conception of the political (understood as the ineradicable element of antagonism
in human and in human/non-human affairs) and of politics (understood as the
articulation or the enactment of social identities). Other commentators have
acknowledged this distinctive radically pluralist conception of politics (McClure,
1992, p. 120; Marsh, 1998, p. 6). With the emphasis upon breadth, this approach
resonates with the approach of Finlayson and Martin, also with Burns, and
with alternative contemporary approaches such as feminism and post-Marxism
(see Bryson, 1992, pp. 194196 and Howarth, 1998, pp. 133135). Conventionally minded theorists might object that by drawing the scope of the political so
wide, radical pluralism effectively annuls political science as a coherent discipline.
They may equate radical pluralism with the unwanted theoretical baggage that
Brown thinks is in danger of swamping the discipline of political science (Brown,
1998, p. 175). There is value in the desire to retain a manageable focus. However,
this is no excuse for maintaining the unacceptably narrow conception of politics
typical of for example conventional (and neo) pluralism. As Slavoj Zizek puts
it: the exclusion of something from the political is the political gesture par excellence (Zizek, 1999, p. 182).
Theoretical innovation in political studies must keep pace with the increasingly
complex and fragile world in which we live. A series of events both good and
bad have led to a general awareness of increasing social and political complexity. These include: the revolutions in information technology and global communications, the experience of post-colonial Diaspora, the prospect of human cloning,
the deeds and continuing threat of international terrorism, the indiscriminate
spread of disease, and the onset of global warming and widespread environmental destruction. The narrow conception of politics understood as formal executive deliberation: as the process of government characteristic of conventional
pluralism and mainstream political science can only account in part for these events
and their impact on peoples lives. What this increasing complexity brings to the
fore is both the sheer pervasiveness of politics and the inseparability of political
from ethical concerns. The insights of radical pluralism are therefore well placed
to enable political theorists and practitioners alike to navigate these turbulent
events and the infinitely plural possibilities that will shape the politics of the new
millennium. One way to keep pace with this increasing complexity is to work
towards the elaboration of a typology of forms of political articulation and sites
of political enactment. Connolly has pioneered this approach (Connolly, 1995a,
p. xxi). Nevertheless, as always, there is plenty to be done.
Note
1 I would like to thank Dr. David Morrice, Dr. Tony Burns, Ms. Gulshan Ara Khan, and three anonymous referees for their comments on earlier drafts of this article. Any errors are my own.
Political Studies Association, 2003.
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