undoing the demos neoliberalism's stealth revolution

Undoing the Demos is a much-needed, passionate defense of political autonomy.” - Rainer Forst, Frankfurt University “A trenchant critique of the piecemeal neoliberal destruction of democratic politics by one of the most powerful political theorists of our time. shows how such developments are reinforced by widespread acceptance of the concept of human capital.'-Foucault Studies, Oscar Larsson 'Draws important empirical and analytical connections between Foucault’s analytical approach to governmentality and a complementary Marxist critique of the material inequality that follows from neoliberal market reforms…. essential reading not only for academics but for anyone concerned with our collective political future, and with the defense of democratic politics.'-Han Rollman, Pop Matters 'Brown’s book is theoretical yet accessible…. 'A brilliant and incisive book, Undoing the Demos deserves to be widely read.'-Astra Taylor, Bookforum 'An impressive work of political theory written by someone who has the rare talent of combining political passion with philosophical rigour.'-Christiaan Boonen, Political Studies Review

Undoing the Demos makes clear that, far from being the lodestar of the twenty-first century, a future for democracy depends upon it becoming an object of struggle and rethinking. Through meticulous analyses of neoliberalized law, political practices, governance, and education, she charts the new common sense. In an original and compelling theoretical argument, Brown explains how and why neoliberal reason undoes the political form and political imaginary it falsely promises to secure and reinvigorate. Radical democratic dreams may not either. Liberal democratic practices may not survive these transformations. The demos disintegrates into bits of human capital concerns with justice cede to the mandates of growth rates, credit ratings, and investment climates liberty submits to the imperative of human capital appreciation equality dissolves into market competition and popular sovereignty grows incoherent. What happens when this rationality transposes the constituent elements of democracy into an economic register? In vivid detail, Wendy Brown explains how democracy itself is imperiled. Neoliberal rationality - ubiquitous today in statecraft and the workplace, in jurisprudence, education, and culture - remakes everything and everyone in the image of homo oeconomicus.

Undoing the demos neoliberalism's stealth revolution