Jacques Rancière
Hatred of Democracy
Paperback $140
ISBN: 9781844673865 Published August 2009 by Verso

「法國哲學家、美學家賈克·洪席耶（Jacques Rancière）指出，「民主的憎恨」源自一種後現代社會學對民主的理解，認為現在人們口中的「民主」只是消費主義的一個面相。政治的基礎是在民主，而民主的基礎並不是理性，民主卻根本就沒有基礎。民主並不像特權階級（如世襲、財富等）的統治一樣建立在一個制度。民主並不是一個必然的框架，民主是「隨機的」（chance)。「隨機」的意思並不是說它像擲骰子，而是說它是建立在人民的選擇，而不是一個僵化了的制度，例如議會。而對於洪席耶來說，民主的第一個特點是帶有無政府主義色彩，其次它永遠都是建立在與特權階級的矛盾。 」－許煜

In our time of the disorientation of the left, Rancière’s writings offer on the few consistent conceptualizations of how are to continue to resist.
— Slavoj Zizek

This tastily sardonic essay is partly a scholarly sprint through the history of political philosophy, and partly a very enjoyable stream of insults directed at rival penseurs.
— Guardian

Jacques Rancière argues that the West can no longer simply extol the virtues of democracy by contrasting it with the horrors of totalitarianism. As certain governments are exporting democracy by brute force, and a reactionary strand in mainstream political opinion is willing to abandon civil liberties and destroy collective values of equality, Rancière explains how democracy—government by all—attacks any form of power based on the superiority of an elite. Hence the fear, and consequently the hatred, of democracy amongst the new ruling class. In a compelling and timely analysis, Hatred of Democracy rethinks the subversive power of this democratic ideal.

Jacques Rancière is a professor of philosophy at the University of Paris-VIII.

伸延閱讀｜of related interest

Jacques Rancière
The Aesthetic Unconscious
Paperback $120
ISBN: 9780745646442 Published February 2010 by Polity Press

This book is not concerned with the use of Freudian concepts for the interpretation of literary and artistic works. Rather, it is concerned with why this interpretation plays such an important role in demonstrating the contemporary relevance of psychoanalytic concepts.

Freud’s ‘aesthetic’ analyses reveal a tension between the two forms of unconscious. In this concise and brilliant text Rancière brings out this tension and shows us what is at stake in this confrontation.

Jacques Rancière
Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics
hardcover $160
ISBN: 9781847064455 Published January 2010 by Continuum

Dissensus brings together some of Jacques Rancière’s most recent writings on art and politics to show the critical potential of two of his most important concepts: the aesthetics of politics and the politics of aesthetics.

Minxin Pei
China’s Trapped Transition
The Limits of Developmental Autocracy
Paper $160
ISBN: 9780674021952 Published March 2008

中國社會改革為經濟及其他方面帶來什麼影響？
缺乏民主改革的政治體治如何加深社會民生發展的矛盾？
中國事務評論員裴敏欣質詢中共中央改革政策（主要體現為市場主導政策）的可持續發展，點出中國作為廿一世紀權力核心其未來發展的局限。

Pei argues, persuasively, that China’s gradualism, often favourably contrasted with the former Soviet Union’s flirtation with radical reforms, is as much a political as an economic strategy.
– Martin Wolf, Financial Times

The rise of China as a great power is one of the most important developments in the twenty-first century. But despite dramatic economic progress, China’s prospects remain uncertain. In a book sure to provoke debate, Minxin Pei examines the sustainability of the Chinese Communist Party’s reform strategy—pursuing pro-market economic policies under one-party rule.

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Tamsin Shaw
Nietzsche’s Political Skepticism
Hardcover $200
ISBN: 9780691133225 Published 2007

尼采批判道德、文化、宗教，為何偏偏沒有政治的份兒？
普林斯頓大學政治理論教授Tamsin Shaw卻指出，
尼采哲學裏政治的缺席本身就是一種政治懷疑論。
他在本書中將引導讀書如何理解尼采對於政治的正統性及權威性提出質疑。

Tamsin Shaw offers us a notable contribution to our understanding of Nietzsche as a political thinker. It has become standard to think that Nietzsche lacked a serious (or at least an interesting) political philosophy. That conventional wisdom encourages the treatment of his many comments about politics and culture as digressions from his central philosophical concerns. This book is the most compelling challenge to date against that conventional wisdom.
– R. Lanier Anderson, Stanford University

Political theorists have long been frustrated by Nietzsche’s work. Although he develops profound critiques of morality, culture, and religion, it is very difficult to spell out the precise political implications of his insights. He himself never did so in any systematic way. In this book, Tamsin Shaw claims that there is a reason for this: Nietzsche’s insights entail a distinctive form of political skepticism.

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