Global Democracy, Western Hegemony, and the Russian Challenge Paper prepared for NORFACE seminar THE TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR EUROPE

The central normative concern of this paper is the prospects of global democracy, examined from the point of view of poststructuralist theory. A particular empirical focus is on the recent Russian debate about democracy, sovereignty and relations with the West. In the first section I outline a poststructuralist approach to this notion, based mostly on the neo-Gramscian theory of discourse developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The second section addresses the problem of democracy as a hegemonic discourse which is, in particular, promoted by the West in as much as the latter is constructed as a global political subject. The third section examines a particular challenge to western hegemony presented by the Russian president Vladimir Putin and his team, who insist on the importance of sovereignty for the idea of democracy. The implications of this challenge potentially go far beyond the current opposition between Russia and the West and can both broaden the democratic horizon and lead to an even greater closure of the Russian political space.