Democracy, difference(s) and deconstruction. A relational analysis of Judith Butler’s philosophy

Abstract

Judith Butler is a philosopher who relies on deconstructivist elements and fits into the climate of difference to escape the dynamics of neoliberal and essentialist policies and economies. Butler’s conception of subjectivity, which has a strong contextualist stamp, is an assumption of democracy in radical and pluralistic terms, and for this reason her political and ethical philosophy proposes a feminism with post-modern overtones whose enclave is a figure of open-minded subjectivity. The politics of the new social movements, beyond institutional limits, as well as the emphasis on differences and their recognition, serve to assume antagonism as a democratically desirable position.