461385 2013
CRS40610.1177/0896920512461385Critical SociologyMoraitis
Article
The Question of Radicalism in Sheldon Wolin’s Political Thought: A Marxist Perspective
Critical Sociology 2014, Vol. 40(6) 893–914 © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0896920512461385 crs.sagepub.com
Yiorgos Moraitis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Abstract It is widely accepted that Sheldon Wolin has revitalized the tradition of radicalism in the context of modern political thought, as evidenced by his contribution to the debate on the so-called death of political philosophy and his forceful critique of Rawls and modern political liberalism. However, Wolin’s fugitive democracy has met with opposition. This paper investigates fugitive democracy from a Marxist perspective and questions whether fugitive democracy can actually confront crucial socio-political issues such as the lack of democracy for the masses in the production of social wealth. Moreover, Wolin’s misinterpretation and rejection of Marx’s theory of democracy and politics leads him to a misconceived view of the Marxian philosophy of history and the progress of political societies as a whole, a misconception that leads to inconsistencies within his own work. And finally, although Wolin seems to be a radical democrat and appears to hold a worldview close to that of socialists, he in fact, despite his criticisms, follows a liberal logic. Keywords deficiency of democracy, dialectics, fugitive democracy, Karl Marx, materialism, Open Marxism, Sheldon Wolin, social democracy
Introduction This article aims to address the issue of radicalism in Wolin’s political thought. First, however, it is important to clarify what is meant by radicalism. Two different conceptions of radicalism are therefore considered simultaneously. The first concerns the study of political philosophy and its history. The second concerns the philosopher’s engagement with contemporary political problems, by which is meant the problem of the deficiency of democracy, social inequalities, the means by which social wealth is produced, and the place of the masses in this process. As far as the second conception is concerned, Wolin’s most important contribution is his fervent criticism of modern political liberalism and his famous analysis on fugitive democracy, an issue that is elaborated upon Corresponding author: Yiorgos Moraitis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Philosophy and Pedagogy, Thessaloniki, 541 24, Greece. Email: gimoraitis@yahoo.com
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