[lbo-talk] Conversation with Derrida

James Heartfield Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk
Thu Nov 5 15:56:26 PST 2009


Shane writes that the founders 'made absolutely sure that neither the word nor the concept appear in their Constitution and Declaration. Even the Bill of Democratic Rights that they were forced to accept (in words only) includes no mention of democracy'

Yes, but Marx says 'Democracy is the solution to the riddle of every constitution. In it we find the constitution founded on its true ground: real human beings and real people; not merely implicity and in essence, but in existence and in reality. The constitution is thus posited as the people's own creation. The constitution is in appearance what it is in reality: the free creation of man.' Critique of Hegel's Doctrine of the State, in the Penguin Early Writings collection, p 87

In other words, just the act of making the constitution contains the germ of democracy.



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