ŽIŽEKOVA KRITIKA LIBERÁLNEJ DEMOKRACIE

By using lacanian notions Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek brings a new and creative critique of ideology in postmodern times. The author of this paper shows their usage on liberal democracy. He builds himself a retrospective image, a fantasy, how he got to this point. The liberal democracy gives him the feeling of freedom to choose. Even if he won´t participate, he has to confront himself with the superego imperative - the pressure of the societal and intersubjective demands. Which if aren´t fulfilled, he is becoming isolated from the group and feels guilty. That feeling of detachment forces him to get more involved. Because of these self-regulators, the subject is unable to identify the flaws of liberal democracy, and cannot step outside that ideology. Critique has to keep in mind that other past forms of democracy (e.g. Athenian slave democracy) have put themselves into the position of non-ideology and build on it. Žižek also works with the Freudian concept of death drive, i.e. a human capacity, which concentrates itself on the core of an ideological system holding it together.