Democracy and Subjective Rights

In this translation of her French classic, Colliot-Théllene gives us a deeply original account of who is doing the democratic work in societies where self-legislation has only ever been a cunning myth. We are introduced to the democratic citizen with her multi-layered identity which combines to make her part of many different collectives, yet as her very own subject of rights, thus escaping ascription as part of a given demos. But what should happen to her democratic citizenship as the modern state changes radically with the contours of modernity? How are we to reinvent a non-national citizenship in a world where governance is both increasingly globalised and fragmented? What is the democratic promise on offer from innovative new practices aimed at controlling all the forms of power exercised upon us, beyond that of the state and its elected representatives? To answer these questions, the reader is taken on a whirlwind tour across historical time and conceptual space to glimpse anew our forever receding democratic horizon. -- Kalypso Nicolaïdis, University of Oxford

In this engaging book, Colliot-Thélène argues for the centrality of subjective rights in the democratic theory of modern societies. This is accomplished through reconstruction of the historical and theoretical basis for democratic rights and the very notion of subjectivity in modern times. The book is commendable for its transdisciplinarity and will be of great interest for scholars of democracy from subjects such as philosophy, sociology and political science. -- Espen D. H. Olsen, University of Oslo

Catherine Colliot-Thélène is Professor Emeritus at the University Rennes 1.