Affections in ruins? Political Disaffection and Democratic Power

Abstract

What does “political disaffection”mean? Is it true that contemporary societies are scenarios full of democratic detachment and ruined affections? Starting from the supposed omnipresent presence of political disaffection in our democracies, we will try to clarify in what precise sense of the word “politics” we are emptied (legitimately) of involvement, esteem and appreciation and in what sense we are not at all. After clarifying that current political disaffection is mainly linked to politics understood as the activity of the ruling class, we will defend that democratic power is compatible with political disaffection against the political class because it does not necessarily imply a detachment from democracy and its configuring power. We will ask ourselves in what way our democracies are threatened by political disaffection and in what sense this disaffection can stimulate, paradoxically, the political dimension of the human animal (non-negotiable) and the democratic power of our current societies (updatable again and again).