Suchergebnisse

Not long ago, under the influence of Michel Foucault, one spoke of the conjunction of knowledge and power, but in this post-truth era power appears singularly uninterested in knowledge, even as the supporters of Donald Trump claim that he alone of all politicians speaks the truth. This essay proposes to examine the relations of power and knowledge under the present populist assault. This analysis begins in the work of Claude Lefort, who spoke of the separation of knowledge and power in democracy's symbolic regime, and is then counterposed to Ernesto Laclau's understanding of 'populist reason' in order to explore the present torsion of this relation to the point where power can appear not just separated from, but opposed to knowledge. It will be argued that it is less a question of post-truth than of different forms of truth with different truth claims, borne by different imperatives, and tied to different forms of representation – truth claims that can, in relation to each other, be indifferent, complementary, or conflictual. With this in mind, the essay asks: what is the relation of the people to truth? Do those who claim to represent the people seek possession of a different kind of truth? What is the relation of populism to ideology? And what is populism's relation to 'post-modernism'?

Sweden's parliamentary system, delegation, & accountability are discussed. First, the new Constitution, which went into effect in 1975, is examined in terms of basic legislative procedure & the King's (limited) role. Next, Swedish political parties, the chain of delegation, & such external constraints on delegation as corporatism, local government, referendums, the courts, & EU membership are described. The conclusion holds that the Swedish chain of delegation & accountability, while not flawless, has not been unsettled by major agency problems. Domestic & external developments have rendered the once (& still constitutionally) sovereign Riksdag no longer the apex of a unitary chain, but far from diminishing the significance of parliamentary democracy, these changes challenge us to hone our comprehension of how they affect the national chain of delegation & accountability that remains the foundation of democratic legitimacy. 1 Table, 83 References. K. Coddon