Democracy and Difference

Lynette Dixon

Address the question of how the author thinks about the challenges of difference (in terms of race, gender, etc.) to democratic theory and practice. 

Hoing asserts that difference challenges democratic theory and practice because it poses challenges to home and agency. Home, a space of identity, is said to be centered around the I and is a place that is free of conflict and difference. Hoing states that this type of home can only be made upon the displacement of Others, with clear demarcations from all that is different. She also states that difference destabilizes certain concepts of agency but allows for a type of agency that is open to and not threatened by such difference. What difference allows is a new type of subject, one that doesn’t retreat to the private home or use agency to seclude themselves. All this seclusion causes is a subject that sees difference as coexisting within a single self which limits how we view identity. The new subject is decentered and understands identity and difference as constantly engaging and perpetually moving. This is a concept similar to what Kristeva proposed for revolt wherein this perpetually moving self destroys categories that are restrictive. I think in this case, the perpetual motion of identity destroys this concept of the home as a stable and unchanging haven for identity. Without this home, the I is destabilized and the subject is not separate from all that is different. This allows for subjects that advocate for politics that are inclusive, just, and sensitive to difference because now everyone has an equal stakes in the implementation of these inclusive policies.