Dissolution of the People

Back Cover Text (From the Promotional Bulletin)

Neoliberal rationality, which has permeated every aspect of life today, recreates everything and everyone in the image of homo oeconomicus. So what happens when the principles and rules of democracy are framed by this order of reason and governance in economic terms and measures? When the commitment to individual and collective self-government and the institutions that underpin it is overwhelmed and displaced by praise for increasing capital value, competitive position and credit rating? What happens when the practices and principles of expression, negotiation, participation, public interest, and power sharing that popular government brings are subjected to economization?

Dissolved and dispersed, the demos become fragments of human capital; Justice only comes to the fore in relation to growth rates, credit scores, and the imposition of investment climates; freedom is subordinated to the imperative to increase the value of human capital; equality is dissipating in market competition; popular sovereignty is becoming more and more incompatible with all this. The institutions, practices and customs of liberal democracy may not survive this transformation. So do dreams of radical democracy.

In The Dissolution of the People, Wendy Brown explains how neoliberalism shakes the foundations of democracy. He explains with an original and remarkable argument why and how the neoliberal mind harms the political form and political imagination that it promises to secure and revitalize. By subjecting neoliberalized law, political practices, administration and education to meticulous analysis, he maps the new common sense: If democracy is to have a future, it must be subject to rethinking and re-struggle today.