Identity/Difference: Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox

by William E. Connolly

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In this foundational work in contemporary political theory, William Connolly makes a distinctive contribution to our understanding of the relationship between personal identity and democratic politics, particularly in the domains of religion, ethics, sexuality, and ethnicity. Every identity, Connolly argues, whether individual or social, presents us with a fundamental and troubling paradox: an identity establishes itself in relation to a set of differences, and it operates under powerful pressures to fix, regulate, or exclude some of these differences as otherness. The dignity of a people or political regime, and the quality of democratic culture, depends on the acknowledgment and ethos cultivated in response to these pressures.In a substantial new essay, Connolly responds to the heated controversy surrounding his ideas when Identity\Difference was first published in 1991, while augmenting his discussion of the virtues of critical responsiveness. The issues of identity and difference cannot be ignored, he contends, and are ubiquitous in modern life.
  • ISBN10 0816640866
  • ISBN13 9780816640867
  • Publish Date 14 August 2002 (first published 1 January 2002)
  • Publish Status Out of Stock
  • Out of Print 15 February 2022
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint University of Minnesota Press
  • Format Paperback
  • Pages 280
  • Language English