Creating Democracy: Arendt and Bakhtin in Dialogue (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought)

Creating Democracy brings into dialogue for the first time two important theorists of democracy: Hannah Arendt (1906–75) and Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–975). Their shared conception of democracy stemming from their encounters with totalitarian governments – Nazi Germany for Arendt and Stalinist Russia for Bakhtin – and the rise of authoritarian populism in both Europe and America make their ideas more relevant than ever.

Charles Hersch contends that Arendt and Bakhtin have a unique vision of democracy that centers on creation and creativity. These two thinkers imagine a world that both makes room for the cultivation and expression of each person’s individuality and facilitates healthy interdependence, one that does not reduce us to sameness. They also describe the many threats to such a humanistic world, whether ideological, social, or political.

Creating Democracy also makes a unique contribution to debates in political theory about the possibility of freedom in modern society. Offering an alternative to poststructuralism and liberalism, Arendt and Bakhtin show us how, in a variety of complex ways, subjects who are influenced by their culture, especially by the language in which they speak and think, can nonetheless help construct themselves and the world. For both thinkers, humans are meaning-making beings who shape the world, primarily through language, even as it shapes us. This book brings to light a rich vision of democracy that is sorely needed in a time when authoritarianism threatens us more than it has in decades. Students and scholars in political science, cultural studies, and literature will all find this book indispensable.

Charles Hersch is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Cleveland State University. He is the author of three books: Democratic Artworks: Politics and the Arts from Trilling to Dylan (1997), Subversive Sounds: Race and the Birth of Jazz in New Orleans (2007), and Jews and Jazz: Improvising Ethnicity (2017), as well as numerous articles.