Toward a Post-Subjectivist Politics?: Reflections on Benhabib, Young, and Mouffe

Over the last century some philosophers and political thinkers have begun to question the subject-centered conceptions of political existence that has largely characterized modern political thought. Emphasizing difference and 'otherness,' some of the challenges to subjective thinking appear to be hostile to any positive conception of political community. One criticism is that 'post-subjective' political thinking does not adequately describe positive identity within a community, nor that it acceptably justifies individual or group accountability. Nevertheless, many thinkers persuaded by criticisms of subjectivity have endeavored to describe and substantiate political agency without recourse to the modern conception of a subject. This dissertation evaluates the 'post-subjective' political theories of Seyla Benhabib, Iris Marion Young, and Chantal Mouffe, with specific interest in the way political identity, accountability, and agency are conceived. The argument explores where these accounts explicitly or implicitly suggest a new source for identity and accountability, and suggests when we should find them politically unacceptable where they might lack such consideration.