Acknowledgments  ix

Introduction: Post-Politics and Left Victory  1

1. Technology: The Promises of Communicative Capitalism  19

2. Free Trade: The Neoliberal Fantasy  49

3. Democracy: A Knot of Hope and Despair  75

4. Resolve: Speaking of Evil  95

5. Ethics: Left Responsiveness and Retreat  123

6. Certainty: 9/11 Conspiracy Theories and Psychosis  145

Notes  177

Bibliography  195

Index  203

“Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies is inspiring because it calls for action on a new terrain. . . . [T]his is a rattling good yarn, one that shivers the timbers and inspires this reader at least to cut loose the anchor and set sail for new horizons.”—Sean Cubitt

‘[A] provocative examination of contemporary Left politics. . . . The complex ideas of poststructuralist thinkers such as Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Zizek figure prominently in her analysis. As in her earlier work, however, Dean is able to relate the value of such thinkers in understanding contemporary events with unique lucidity and clarity. . . . [A]n important, worthwhile, and entertaining contribution to discussions of radical alternatives to current political realities. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduate students, and above.”—R. W. Glover, Choice

“Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies is inspiring because it calls for action on a new terrain. . . . [T]his is a rattling good yarn, one that shivers the timbers and inspires this reader at least to cut loose the anchor and set sail for new horizons.”—Sean Cubitt

‘[A] provocative examination of contemporary Left politics. . . . The complex ideas of poststructuralist thinkers such as Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Zizek figure prominently in her analysis. As in her earlier work, however, Dean is able to relate the value of such thinkers in understanding contemporary events with unique lucidity and clarity. . . . [A]n important, worthwhile, and entertaining contribution to discussions of radical alternatives to current political realities. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduate students, and above.”—R. W. Glover, Choice

“Jodi Dean’s new book provides what we have all been waiting for: the authentic theoretical analysis of how ideology functions in today’s global capitalism. Her diagnosis of ‘communicative capitalism’ discloses how our ‘really-existing democracies’ curtail prospects of radical emancipatory politics. Dean demonstrates this status of democracy as a political fantasy not through cheap pseudo-Marxist denunciations, but through a detailed examination of social, symbolic, and libidinal mechanisms and practices. To anyone who continues to dwell in illusions about liberal democracy, one should simply say: ‘Hey, didn’t you read Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies?’”—Slavoj Zizek, Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

“Jodi Dean provides an incredibly lucid explanation of what neoliberalism has been both in policy terms and collective fantasies of the relation of markets to freedom. But the really threatening Big Other in this book is not neoliberal ideology, but the failed and flawed leftist will that concedes too much power and unity to neoliberalism. This is a frank polemic that will stimulate many arguments about the past and future of critical theory and democratic politics in the United States.”—Lauren Berlant, author of The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship

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