“On the Dialectics of Democracy Promotion. A Critical Republican Approach” Dorothea Gädeke (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)

Democratization has become a battle cry in contemporary political discourse: Celebrated and promoted for spreading the only legitimate form of government by some, criticized and rejected for serving as the core of a neo-imperial world order by others.

Drawing on republicanism and critical theory, the lecture proposes a theory of domination that transcends this dichotomous view. It links a critique of power with an account of democracy and shows why both the defense and the critique of democracy promotion bear the risk of reverting from a fight against domination into a politics of domination.