The devaluation of the political

Abstract

The article reviews Habermas’ analysis of the relationship between economics and politics in Europe between 1945 and 1989, and the breakdown of such construction that forces us to conceive of a new categorical map for the political, with two important effects: the loss of confidence both in an alternative to exploitation and economic inequality and in the possibility of directing the economy from democratic political institutions. It shows that Adorno’s contribution to the formulation of such space is not limited to the abandonment of the idea of a reason that proposes ideals as its goal.  The status of his «critique» is therefore neither Kantian nor Hegelian, even though the dialogue with both models is incessant from a micro-logical perspective for political action whose criterion of validity becomes the struggle against “damaged life”.