Political Action and Speech in the 2000 Presidential Election

MARTIN PLOT

Constellations. An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory

Blackwell

Lugar: Oxford; Año: 2001 vol. 8 p. 313 - 328

1351-0487

How did political speech and action actually shape the outcome of the 2000 presidential race? In order to attempt an answer to this question, in this paper I propose to formulate a typology that would conceive of its first term, democratic political action, as a form of practice that inhabits a crossroads between actions inspired by a principle and performed from a point of view that are assumed to be the right ones, and the seemingly paradoxical acceptance of the fact that other actions which spring from different principles and are performed from different points of view enjoy similar convictions regarding their own validity. This reflexivity inherent to any democratic political practice is rooted in the projection of our own experience onto a context of reciprocity – an elementary component of a democratic society – and it is highly “realistic,” because it takes into account the complexity of a reality whose consistency depends on its being perceived and interpreted in a context of intersubjective plurality. But it is also highly “principled” since it acts according to convictions, values, and styles not necessarily shared by the other members of the body politic. The typology will be complete with the development of two more types of political practices, whose respective goals are to overcome this tension by embracing one of the constitutive elements of democratic political action, which as such becomes a constant source of uncertainty and risk – as well as one of creativity and unlimited generation of unexpected consensus. Revista indexada en: Academic Search (EBSCO Publishing) Academic Search Premier (EBSCO Publishing) IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (ProQuest) Philosopher´s Index (Philosopher´s Information Center) PhilPapers POIESIS: Philosophy Online Serials (PDC) ProQuest Central (ProQuest) ProQuest Research Library (ProQuest) Social Services Abstracts (ProQuest) SocINDEX (EBSCO Publishing) Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest) Worldwide Political Sciences Abstracts (ProQuest)