Agonist theorists have argued against deliberative democrats that democratic institutions should not seek to establish a rational consensus, but rather allow political disagreements to be expressed in an adversarial form. But democratic agonism is not antagonism: some restriction of the plurality of admissible expressions is not incompatible with a legitimate public sphere. However, is it generally possible to grant this distinction between antagonism and agonism without accepting normative standards in public discourse that saliently resemble those advocated by (some) deliberative democrats? In this paper we provide an analysis of one important aspect of political communication, the use of slippery-slope arguments, and show that the fact of pluralism weakens the agonists' case for contestation as a sufficient ingredient for appropriately democratic public discourse. We illustrate that contention by identifying two specific kinds of what we call pluralism slippery slopes, that is, mechanisms whereby pluralism reinforces the efficacy of slippery-slope arguments.
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Dan Brockington
. This confusion, as McElwee observes, is difficult to reconcile with the “critiques that the very concept of ES may be a fast and slippery slope to commodification of everything in nature.” The process of producing the calculations may well tolerate more
In Environment and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2017
- Article Type:
- Introduction
- Pages:
- 1–8 (8 total)
An Obstacle to Decolonising Europe
White Nationalism and Its Co-option of Serbian Propaganda
Jordan Kiper
that the nation is superior to others but ever endangered by foreign elements. From this recursive theme, white nationalists engage in slippery slope arguments, such as the often-circulated claim that any sociopolitical compromise that breaks from the
In Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2021
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 112–122 (11 total)
Donna Houston, Diana McCallum, Wendy Steele, and Jason Byrne
—but this is not a one-way street where the ibis simply become objects of urban governance. Thinking in the presence of the ibis highlights a set of political and ecological responsibilities involved in witnessing climate change and the slippery slope of
In Nature and Culture
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2016
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 259–277 (19 total)
Home and Away
Place Appreciation and Purposeful Relocation in Later Life
Neil Thin
‘environmental wellbeing’ are probably dimly aware that they are anthropomorphising, but such concepts are a slippery slope towards one-way deterministic thinking. Much of the causal theorising is speculative, and when there is a semblance of science involved, it
In Anthropology in Action
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2016
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 6–16 (11 total)
Nathan Stoltzfus
. 5 Reparations paid now could well lead to a slippery slope of claims from multiple countries such as Namibia, which seeks reparations from its time as a German colony. The last two German presidents have sought to make amends, visiting Greece to
In German Politics and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2020
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 72–90 (19 total)
Patrick Cockburn
of this article, feared that ‘Necessity would open a door no man could shut’ because he saw a slippery slope between real needs, imagined needs and invented needs – a slope that the courts would not be able to find a footing on. Even regardless of
The Case of Australia
Trust During Pandemic Uncertainty—A Qualitative Study of Midlife Women in South Australia
Paul R. Ward, Belinda Lunnay, Kristen Foley, Samantha B. Meyer, Jessica Thomas, Ian Olver, and Emma R. Miller
conspiracy theories on social media linked to the so-called “Plandemic.” For example, Irene sided with conspiracy theorists, suggesting that the current pandemic countermeasures were a slippery slope to future legal changes and more overt forms of political
In The International Journal of Social Quality
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2021
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 289–308 (20 total)
Selin Çağatay, Olesya Khromeychuk, Stanimir Panayotov, Zlatina Bogdanova, Margarita Karamihova, and Angelina Vacheva
metaphysical, notion of the One. Her critique prevents the slippery slope of a metaphysical restoration of undertheorized identity politics under the guise of naïve universalism (the political obverse of “naïve realism”). Readers who are somewhat familiar with
Wolfgang Merkel and Jean-Paul Gagnon
defective democracy on a slippery slope toward dictatorship as it had been undermined by the emergency powers afforded to the executive. This was due in large part to the previous economic crisis. It forced the Weimar Republic into a state of exception from