The role of the feminist movement in the radicalization of democracy

Abstract

This work’s intent is to verify whether the construction of a radical democratic feminist project is possible. Far from being a static and universal concept, democracy may be thought of in different ways and analyzed in accordance with different perspectives. This work presupposes liberal democracy as the hegemonic model in modernity in order to highlight that that model, at its turn, has proven itself insufficient as a vessel to the plurality implicit in social life, and in ensuring rights for everyone. Considering a need for extending liberal democracy’s basic principles, freedom and equality, this work starts with a normative premise in order to demonstrate the potentiality of the radical democratic model in that sense. Chantal Mouffe’s notion of radical democracy is employed as a theoretical framework. Starting from a normative premise of radicalization of democracy, this work intends to demonstrate the contributions of feminist democratic and political theory towards that goal, and also the role played by minorities, especially gender minorities. Since there is a need for constructing a more democratic and less excluding order, it is also necessary to move away from essentialist perspectives on democracy, radicalizing democracy.