Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction: against ethics; 1. Political representation: the aesthetic state; 2. Stoa, aesthetics, and democracy; 3. Romanticism, postmodernism, and democracy; 4. Politics and irony; 5. Politics and metaphor; 6. Metaphor and paradox in Tocqueville's political writings; Conclusion: democracy in the age of unintended consequences; Notes; Index.

Reviews

"This is the most serious and original treatment of postmodernism I know. Utterly brilliant, closely argued, and clearly referenced to the major positions in contemporary political theory, it is immediately relevant to a range of ongoing political discussions: the future of democratic political institutions, the nature of political representation, the growth of state power at the expense of individual freedoms, the effect of global economics on local politics, and the fateful linkage of the state and ethics in modern politics." - Hayden White, University of California, Santa Cruz "Aesthetic Politics is the most substantial and ambitious contribution to democratic thought that 'postmodern theory' has yet offered." - The Hedgehog Review