The Constructivist Turn in Political Representation

This volume traces the roots of the constructivist turn in the distinct (and competing) traditions of Continental and Anglo-American Western political thought. Divided into three thematic parts, these 13 newly commissioned essays develop the constructivist turn as a central concept. They advance the insight that there can be no democratic politics without representation; constituencies or groups exist as agents of democratic politics only insofar as they are represented.

• Offers comparative accounts of the genealogy of the constructivist turn in the rival intellectual traditions of continental democratic theory and Anglo-American deliberative democracy
• Features the first English translation of Claude Lefort’s essay 'Democracy and Representation'
• Critically examines the political implications of constructivist research for legitimating potentially undemocratic aspects of global politics
• Re-examines democratic uprisings that have been dismissed as 'protest movements' from the constructivist position