The Functions of Political Theory: Sheldon Wolin’s Vision and the Predicament of Democracy

This paper investigates Sheldon Wolin’s claims concerning the vocation of the political theorist as primarily engaged in a civic activity, and his depiction of political theory as an exercise in political education, aimed at offering a fresh perspective “on our present predicament”, as the introduction to his 1960 Politics and Vision posits. Based on a close scrutiny of Wolin’s endeavors to delineate the nature and scope of the political, the analysis explores three key debates bearing heavily on our current political predicament: Wolin’s engagement with the Arendtian democratic impulse and his criticism of her agonistic proclivities, his interventions in the debates on identity politics and recognition, and his form and prescient indictment of managed democracy in an age of political demobilization.