Abstract
Prof. Neves’ talk will be based on his book project Transdemocracy. This project is geared towards a new understanding of democracy, considering that so-called ‘democratic’ modern decisions negatively affect other peoples and thus become undemocratic. In this sense, the concept of ‘people sovereignty’ has to be redefined. To put it differently. It is no longer sufficient to identify democracy with ‘we the people’. Democracy must incorporate ‘the others’, and so add the phrase ‘the others, the peoples’ as an expression of its self-understanding. From an almost exclusive stress on people’s identity, democracy has to switch to an emphasis on peoples’ alterity.
The talk will be divided in four parts according to the four chapter of the planned book Transdemocracy. The first part deals with the antidemocratic character of polity [politeía/πολιτεία] in ancient Greek, considering its exclusionary character. The second part is related to the misunderstanding of the concept of democracy in modern liberal revolutions, considering the emphasis on the isolationist concept of people’s sovereignty. The third part concerns the negative impact of democratic countries on their political and social environment through colonialism, neocolonialism, and imperialism. The fourth part deals with the reflux of ‘garbage’ from the subaltern peripheries to dominating centers, which requires reinvention of democracy.