Abstract

This dissertation explores the intersection of postmodern political theory and the study of political participation. Traditional approaches to the study of participation share distinctly modern, liberal understandings of power, subjectivity and knowledge that are inappropriate for a postmodern world. I challenge the relevance of traditional understandings of the purpose of participation given the complex, technical, bureaucratic and disciplinary nature of contemporary societies as they are described by Jurgen Habermas and Michel Foucault. I suggest that we redefine the purpose of participation as performative resistance, and utilize postmodern reconstructions of agency and autonomy to craft a postmodern notion of self-development appropriate for the contemporary world. Finally, drawing on feminist challenges to rationalist and empiricist epistemological paradigms, I challenge the categories currently utilized in the study of participation, and redefine the process of rational deliberation