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The death of conventional politics is examined. Contemporary political analysts suggest that the disappearance of class identities & the end of the bipolar system of confrontation have made conventional politics obsolete. Consensus at the center is now the dominant political mechanism. However, the blurring of old antagonisms is more a matter of definition than actual disappearance of political conflict. New political antagonisms have emerged in the past few decades & exist in contemporary political life. Political parties have not yet articulated these antagonisms in ways that reach their constituents. Consensus is not a political panacea. Antagonism & dissent play crucial roles in democratic politics & should be encouraged & incorporated into an agonistic pluralism model of democracy. D. Generoli

IN A TRUE DEMOCRACY, THE TENSION BETWEEN UNITY AND DIFFERENCE OF CITIZENS IS UNRESOLVABLE -- AS THE AUTHOR SAYS IT SHOULD BE. SHE CONTENDS THAT THE MOST FERTILE TERRAIN FOR CONSTRUCTING PROGRESSIVE POLITICS IS THAT OF A RADICAL DEMOCRACY THAT RECOGNIZES THE CENTRALITY OF DIFFERENCE AND CONTESTATION TO POLITICAL LIFE. SHE EXPLORES SCHMITT'S DEMOCRATIC ANTI-LIBERALISM AS WELL AS KANT AND THE COMMON GOOD. THE CONCLUSION IS THAT THE VERY EXISTENCE OF MODERN DEMOCRACY FORBIDS THE POSSIBILITY OF ITS FULL REALIZATION.

In a previous number (NLR 163) Norman Geras opened a discussion of intellectual currents that have explicitly defined themselves as 'post-Marxist', and offered an extensive critique of 'Hegemony and Socialist Strategy' (Verso, 1985) by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffee. These 2 authors here enter a sustained reply in defence of their positions. (Abstract amended)