Archive of political theory

The current conjuncture demands rigorous analysis if we are to understand the political moment and develop a strategy to respond to it. Alain Badiou undertakes this task, offering thirteen theses on global politics today and suggesting an organizing strategy for the Left given those conditions.

Verso editor Jessie Kindig on editing Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, part of a roundtable of responses to Potential History.

Complete your Mouffe bookshelf with this reading list!

From post-68 militancy to the pandemic disruption of today, sociologist Göran Therborn traces the shifting contexts for the landmark essays collected in his latest book, Inequality and the Labyrinths of Democracy

40% off new Rancière editions, plus our bestselling political theory and philosophy books.

As Argentina's upper house prepares for its historic vote on abortion rights, Verónica Gago, our leading theorist of the Feminist International, discusses how the struggle around abortion has opened up the central question of 'political decision' for those typically excluded from politics. 

As the crisis of capitalism unfolds, the need for alternatives is felt ever more intensely. The struggle between radical movements and the forces of reaction are merciless. Over the last twenty-five years, radical intellectuals across the world have produced important and innovative ideas. The endeavour to transform the world without falling into the catastrophic traps of the past has been a common element uniting these new approaches.

We need a way of assessing not just what is wrong with capitalism, but what is desirable about alternatives.

The convergence of capitalism and print technology on the fatal diversity of human language created the possibility of a new form of imagined community, which in its basic morphology set the stage for the modern nation. 

"The concept associated with Black Marxism that I find most productive and most potentially transformative is the concept of racial capitalism.... Global capitalism cannot be adequately comprehended if the racial dimension of capitalism is ignored."