Democracy versus Republic: Inclusion and Desire in Social Struggles

This paper argues that the idea of inclusion is linked to the democratic tradition rather than to the republican one. By analyzing the origins and meaning of these two concepts, the author holds that democracy is rather linked to desire and republic to will (and to the expression of desire), and con...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Diogenes
Main Author: Janine Ribeiro, Renato
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0392192108096829
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0392192108096829
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Summary:This paper argues that the idea of inclusion is linked to the democratic tradition rather than to the republican one. By analyzing the origins and meaning of these two concepts, the author holds that democracy is rather linked to desire and republic to will (and to the expression of desire), and concludes that, since North Atlantic political tradition has not given a key role to desire, democracy, in order to overcome the difficulties it has been encountering in all parts of the world, should take more account of desire and of the social struggles it brings to the fore.