To Think Democracy Otherwise: Claude Lefort and ‘Savage’ Democracy

Chapter 3 explores some of the larger questions animated by what Lefort calls “savage” democracy. While many readers of Lefort simply ignore his sporadic references to savage democracy, others, such as Abensour, place it at the very centre of their interpretation of his thought. This chapter turns to Lefort specifically to organise a general concept of democracy consistent with the author’s theory of the antinomies of politics. In many respects, to theorise democracy in this way demands we reconsider and reevaluate everything about how we think about democracy itself. Whether a discussion of the French Revolution or May ’68, the pivotal historical moments Lefort tends to associate with savage democracy seem to demand we bracket all our assumptions about what democracy means and return again and again to those fundamental questions: how should democracy be thought? How do we go about organising its concept? On what basis? And to what end? This is an exercise of political philosophy. This chapter first situates Lefort’s savage democracy according to Tocqueville’s notion of democratic revolution, then, following Abensour, moves to develop savage democracy as an emancipatory political act explored through discussions of permanent contestation, democratisation and the ongoing struggle for human rights.