Democracy and Empire theorizes the material basis of popular sovereignty via the Black radical tradition. Popular sovereignty contains an affective attachment to wealth, secured through collective agreements to dominate others, i.e., self-and-other-determination. Ines Valdez expands on racial capitalism by theorizing its Anglo-European-based popular politics, which authorize capital accumulation enabled by empire and legitimated by racial ideologies. This stunts political projects in the Global South. Valdez masterfully outlines how social reproduction is provided by racialized others who sacrifice families and communities, and how the political alienation from nature in wealthy polities is mediated by technology and enabled by a joint devaluation of nature and manual labor performed by racialized others. The book concludes with a theorization of anti-imperial popular sovereignty based on political relations that encompass nature. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

Reconceptualizes central notions in political theory to make sense of the systems of imperial popular sovereignty and self-determination.

About the Author
Ines Valdez is a political theorist and Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University. Her research on critical theory and racial capitalism approaches politics transnationally and historically. Her award-winning work appears in the American Political Science Review and Political Theory. She is the author of Transnational Cosmopolitanism (2019).


Book Information
ISBN 9781009383998
Author Ines Valdez
Format Hardback
Page Count 250
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 530g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 158mm * 21mm