How Politics Is Possible

From the Brexit referendum to this year's US election,the elitism and procedural tendencies within liberal democracy have increasingly demonstrated the severity of their problems.Facing this dilemma of democracy,contemporary left-wing scholars have proposed a "radical democracy" theory starting from the original intent of democracy.As a member of this pedigree,Jacques Rancière developed a unique set of aesthetic political theory by taking democracy as the key concept connecting his politics and aesthetics.In his view,democracy is not a type of political system or regime,but a subjective behavior that presupposes equality.It is precisely through this unique definition of democracy that he extended democracy from the institutional realm to the perceptual realm,thus giving us the possibility of thinking about democracy in art forms,such as literature and movies.As a representative of radical left-wing and post-Marxism in contemporary France,Rancière's thinking has obvious attributes of "post-structuralism".In his early years,he read a lot of Sartre's works and was deeply influenced by his existentialism.While studying at the école Normale de Paris,he and Badiou,Bariba,etc.as Althusser students,forged an indissoluble bond with structural Marxism and psychoanalysis.In the ensuing "May Storm",he realized the powerful power of the proletariat itself and stood firmly on the opposite side of Althusser.Later in the work of the University of Paris VIII,as Foucault's colleagues,they established a deep friendship.Although Rancière's ideological background and theoretical origins are very complicated,Sartre,Althusser and Foucault are indispensable parts to understand his theoretical connotation.It is under the influence of these great thinkers that Rancière formed a unique democratic political theory.Before further analysis of his democratic thought,only by fundamentally grasping the philosophical basis of his democratic thought can we truly understand the profoundness of his democratic thought.Rancière's unique definition of democracy stems from the way he views politics.Since ancient Greece,politics,as the embodiment of city-state justice,has gradually evolved into a calculation system that determines community qualifications based on its value.However,this calculation is problematic because it uses freedom that is not exclusive to the people as the calculation standard,thus concealing the inequality of background and wealth.Under this calculation logic,those who have no owners absorbed into the community are reduced to “the part of those who have no part”.In the eyes of Rancière,politics stems from the part reveals the "wrong" of this calculation.Through the distinction between "police" and "politics",Rancière believes that the police order as a manifestation of "consensus logic",ultimately leads only to elitist rule,thus making democracy lose its original features.Politics,as a form of the distribution of the sensible,only exists at the moment of "dissensus " when those who do not occupy any part have dialogues with the existing discourse owners on the premise of "equality of intelligence".The manifestation of this awareness of equality is democracy in the theory of Rancière.In order to promote the emergence of this kind of "politics" of dissensus,Rancière believes that it is necessary to start with the redistribution of the sensible field.Because the division of the sensible fields in the police order has imprisoned the possibility of revolution,if this imprisonment is not broken first,any revolution and change can only be a simple historical repetition.The best way to break the distribution of the sensible is to actively intervene in the existing sensible space.This intervention is a manifestation of democracy.This is the main reason why he has continued to wander in the fields of literature,film and art in recent years.This prompted Rancière to link politics with aesthetics,thus constructing a unique aesthetic political system.In this system,aesthetics and politics are both the embodiment of " the distribution of the sensible ",corresponding to "aesthetic politics" and "political aesthetics",and democracy in it means " the redistribution of the sensible " that breaks the existing sensibility division ".In order to understand the uniqueness of Rancière's democratic thought,it must be placed in the pedigree of contemporary democratic theory for investigation.By analyzing its differences with liberal democracy and radical democracy,we can more clearly locate Rancière's democracy theory.The position of theory in the contemporary democratic pedigree.Compared with the elitist tendency of liberal democracy,Rancière is similar to other radical democratic theorists.By emphasizing the principle of "popular sovereignty",he has realized the radical expression of the original intent of democracy.However,compared to Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's dependence on the imperial organization of the " multitude ",Rancière valued the autonomy of " the part of those who have no part ".At the same time,he does not approve of Negri and Hardt's emphasis on the results of democratic actions.In his opinion,whether successful or not,democratic moments are themselves valuable as a tearing apart of public order.Compared with the "radical pluralism" of Laclau and Mouffe,Rancière believes that equality is the most important aspect of democracy.The so-called "pluralism" is nothing more than dividing a large consensus into a lot of small consensus,still not free from the logic of consensus democracy.Although Rancière's radical thoughts are inherently self-consistent,as a democratic theory,it must have realistic explanatory power to demonstrate its true value.From the "Occupy Wall Street movement " to the "Yellow Vest movement ",the contemporary democratic movement has shown complex and changeable new forms,and has gradually shown a tendency to merge with "populism" and "anarchism".This can provide us with a broad stage to test the democratic theory of Rancière.Through the analysis of the perceptual factors,occupation and violence in the operation of contemporary democracy,it not only confirms the validity of his democratic theory,but also exposes its inherent flaws.Although Rancière has noticed the suppression of the perceptual realm by contemporary capitalism and has provided a new way to think about democracy from an aesthetic level,the excessive emphasis on the perceptual dimension of democracy has made it overlook the productive foundation of Marx's social transformation.And because of his insistence on intellectual equality made him refuse to formulate any concrete blueprints for democratic development,all of which greatly Weakened the realistic influence of his democratic theory.In short,democracy,as a clue throughout Rancière 's ideological system,has always been inseparable from its heterogeneous concept of "politics",and he even often mixes the two concepts,which is mainly due to the radical nature of equality in his discourse.Since he regards equality as a presupposition rather than a goal,democracy means acting in this equal posture.When an democratic action occurs,it will inevitably conflict with the inequality in the police order,and then politics will appear.Therefore,although democracy always precedes politics logically,democratic actions must be accompanied by political consequences.And Rancière's expansion of democracy from the institutional level to the sensible field provides a new dimension for us to think about "how politics is possible" in contemporary times.