How do we become democratic citizens, and what role does the articulation of political claims play in this respect? How are we to understand the constitution and eruption of new claims, and how do we make sense of the terms in which such claims are expressed? ... Perhaps more broadly, how are we to account for the interplay of tradition and innovation in democratic life, and what light can existing democratic theory shed on these issues arising in democratic politics? (p. 3)rnThese are (some of) the questions that guide Aletta Norval's analysis of contemporary democratic theory in Aversive Democracy: Inheritance and Originality in the Democratic Tradition. Norval examines how we understand - and should understand - democratic argumentation, subjectivity and community. The political context is the post-1989 world and, in particular, the democratisations in the Second and Third Worlds (see also Norval 1995, 1997).
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