deBuren

Chantal Mouffe was educated at the universities of Leuven, Paris and Essex. She is currently Professor of Political Theory at Westminster University in London. Her work focuses on social contradictions and she advocates a radical democracy in which conflicts are not denied, but play a positive and productive role. Liberal ideas, with their emphasis on the importance of consensus, tend to forget the importance of contrasts.

In her lecture 'Which World Order: Cosmopolitan or Multipolar?' she questions the dominance of relevant cosmopolitan thinking. This thinking cherishes the post-modern utopia of a worldwide reconciliation in a global world order without any power or politics. In contrast to this however, Mouffe stresses the necessity of a multi-polar world order that comprises several continental power blocks such as the European Union. Only in a constellation like this will a global and democratic political debate continue to be possible in which citizens can voice their democratic demands politically.

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