Today, we are living through 'the age of globalization.' In this situation, there
is much attention towards not just 'new' problems but also 'old' ones. Racial,
national, or religious conflicts and hostilities are getting worse. When these
conflicts and antagonism are expressed as specific actions, they take forms of
very direct/extreme violent demonstrations or terrorism. The aggravation of
antagonism and violence already spread across literally 'all over the world', so we
could call the phenomena as 'globalization of antagonism.'
I think what contemporary political philosophers, Chantal Mouffe and Étienne
Balibar, make an issue of could be connected with globalization of antagonism.
Their thoughts are full of suggestions about the issue of antagonism, then detailed
analysis is required. I will summarize their discussion around concepts of political
community and citizenship which could be critical on the political issues, and
arrange differences and similarities between them. Especially focusing on
similarities, I will specify contents of conditions for politics against globalization
of antagonism they suggest. Works of Mouffe and Balibar make us reconsider
conditions for politics through an active theoretical intervention.