The concept of democracy in Slavoj Žižek and Giorgio Agamben

Abstract

The article has as central theme the concept of democracy in the political philosophies of Slavoj Žižek and Giorgio Agamben. The diagnoses presented in this article were possible in the light of the research originated by the following problematic: What is the conception of democracy in the political philosophy of Slavoj Žižek and Giorgio Agamben? The general objective of the text is to identify the concept of democracy in the political philosophy of Slavoj Žižek and Giorgio Agamben. The results obtained in the researches were possible by the bibliographical reviews. The database is structured with the primary dynamics, having a qualitative, historical and philosophical approach, since it is a conceptual research, incompatible with numerical statements. As a philosophical current of research, the Dialectical Historical Materialism was used for the investigations on Žižek's thinking and Archeology and Genealogy for investigations of de Agamben's conceptual course. The research reveals a critical diagnosis about the notion of democracy in the contemporary world. Governments that call themselves democratic are illegitimate and unrelated to any practices of democracy simply because of the antinomy of the needs and longings of individuals and populations. Democracy is in this context conceived as a technique of government, as a discourse legitimizing illegitimate governments at the service of contractual guarantees required by the dynamics of the global financial economy.