Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Key Concept
directing readers to wider issues and concerns, I indicate some further reading
below.
In order to elaborate on this deceptively simple phrase I want to assess
democracy in relation to autoimmunity a key principle in Derridas later
work. Autoimmunity both stands-in for and re-orientates a number of
Derridas
earlier
quasi-concepts:
aporia,
double
bind,
the
supplement, diffrance, antinomy and so on. In Rogues, Derrida makes a
sustained case for thinking of democracy as being governed by an
autoimmune logic. Biologically, autoimmunity describes a kind of bodily selfdestruction whereby the bodys immune system produces antibodies or
lymphocytes that work against substances naturally present in the body.
Whilst clearly inspired by the biological inference, Derrida uses the term to
describe a gesture of self-defence or self-preservation of some thing that in
fact leads to that things destruction. So, to suggest that democracy is
autoimmune is to claim that it is threatened internally by its very own logic.
This internal compromise or flaw to democracy is crucial to Derridas thinking
of the democracy to come. I want to highlight two ways in which Derrida
accounts for this self-inflicted dehiscence within democracy.
The first issue involves the relation between democracy and sovereignty.
Derrida suggests that in order for democracy, understood quite literally as the
rule (cratos) of the people (demos), to have any discernable effect in ruling it
must rely on some form of sovereignty. Sovereignty and democracy are
inseparable but contradictory partners. The efficacy of democracy relies on
sovereignty: without sovereignty, the demos would be usurped by some other
power and an effective rule of the demos would never be achieved. In striving
to protect itself and guarantee its dominance through a co-option of
sovereignty, democracy suffers from an autoimmune self-destruction. In an
attempt to immunise and protect itself from destruction, democracy destroys
itself by closing off, unifying and essentialising the multiplicity that enables
the formation of democracy in the first place. The plurality of the demos must
We can see, then, that Derridas approach to democracy has two interrelated
aims. His first gesture inquires into the conditions of possibility for
democracy, revealing an aporia or contradiction at its heart. In this sense a
critical distance must be observed when it comes to democracy as it is
currently understood, practiced and reproduced. Lazy proclamations of
democracy having been achieved or perfected in current regimes and practices
must be radically questioned and displaced. A second gesture in his thinking
of the democracy to come with the emphasis now on the to come urges
for intervention, disruption, transformation and resistance. It calls for
an engag manner, a precipitous intervention in the here and now that opens
democracy to a radically different horizon.
Derrida, then, uses the notion of the democracy to come not simply to describe
the way in which modern democratic politics falls short of its proclaimed
ideals (though it is clear that Derrida wants to retain this inference) but
democracy is to come in a much more radical sense. The autoimmuniary
flaw to democracy is the very thing that opens the possibility of a democratic
future. This opening to the future, it must be stressed, is not blindly
optimistic, as if there are only better, more democratic days ahead. Derridas
syntagm names the necessary coming of the future, both the best and the very
worst. And whilst offering no normative guidance or assurances, Derrida does
point to a necessary restlessness at the heart of democracy, the urgency of the
need for ongoing work and engagement. Democracy in this sense would
always be coming, always a site of promise and open potential. We might
name this understanding of democracy, following a definition of socialism
favoured by the recently passed Hugo Chavez, as democracy without end.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
There is a huge amount written on Derridas approach to democracy as well as
deconstruction and politics, more generally. I note here the most significant
and/or accessible texts only.
Works by Derrida
Spectres of Marx: The State of Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New
International(London: Routledge, 2010). The first two chapters are particularly
useful for exploring the relationship between justice, presence and democracy. On
the democracy to come in particular see chapter 2, especially pp. 7383.
The Politics of Friendship (London: Verso, 2005). This difficult text engages readings
of Aristotle, Schmitt, Nietzsche, Blanchot, and Nancy on the question of friendship,
fraternity, community and democracy. See particularly, chapters 14 and chapter 6,
9 and 10.
Rogues: Two Essays on Reason (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005). This is
perhaps the most thorough and accessible elaboration of Derridas thinking on
democracy. Chapters 3 and 8 specifically deal with the notion of the democracy to
come. On the question of equality and freedom including an important
engagement with Nancys reading of fraternity and liberty see chapters 4 and
5.
Force of Law: The Mystical Foundation of Authority in Acts of Religion ed. Gil
Anidjar (London: Routledge, 2010), pp. 228-298. For a discussion of democracy in
relation to Benjamins Critique of Violence and Derridas conception of law and
justice, see pp. 278293 in particular.
Martin Hgglund, Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life. Particularly useful
for comparing Derridas thinking with Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffes work,
see chapter 5.
Jean-Luc Nancy, The Truth of Democracy (New York: Fordham University Press,
2010). Though very much Nancys own intervention this touches on a number of
Derridas concerns regarding democracy.
Michael Naas, Derrida From Now On (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008).
Particularly, chapters 6, 7, 8 and 10.
Pheng Cheah and Suzanne Guerlac eds., Derrida and the Time of the
Political (London: Duke University, 2009).
Martin McQuillan ed., The Politics of Deconstruction: Jacques Derrida and the
Other of Philosophy (London: Pluto Press, 2007).