Party, state, revolution

Slavoj Žižek is one of the most prominent public intellectuals of the left. His central claim holds that “today, it is more crucial than ever to continue to question the very foundations of capitalism as a global system”. To do so, Žižek proposes ‘reloading’ Lenin and updating Leninist notions of the proletariat, the political party and revolution. The precise contents of these updated notions, however, remain curiously underdeveloped. This volume therefore sets out to critically discuss Slavoj Žižek’s conceptualisation of politics, political organisation and especially the (past, present and future) state. It seeks to investigate Žižek’s works in search of a coherent state theory, and to subsequently examine its internal consistency and critical potential. This book is the first to analyse the evolution of Žižek’s thinking about the state in great detail, from his writings on the limits of liberal democracy (and how to overcome them) to his views on revolution, the Soviet state and post-revolutionary society. Consequently, his ideas are grounded in radical and (post-) Marxist debates on the state and revolution and in his debates with other radical thinkers. This volume contains contributions by noted scholars and writers, such as Erik Vogt, Geoff Boucher and Agon Hamza. Marc De Kesel is an associate professor at Saint Paul University, Ottawa. Bart van der Steen is a lecturer at Leiden University, Leiden.