Science and Democracy

This investigation proposes a reflexive, discourse-analytical approach for understanding "democracy" as an object of EU/European governance. Drawing on Michel Foucault, it contrasts regularities and exclusions that delineate the reasonably speakable about democracy within present formations of social science knowledge production and historical orders of speech in classical 19th century liberalism. In doing so, the study points to the specificity and instability of dominant contemporary perceptions of "democracy" as a stable European norm, subverts their present sense of naturalness and underlines their intimate relation with power.

Laura Pantzerhielm is a Research Fellow at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB).