Most people equate democracy with discussion, speech, and making one's voice heard. But where does silence fit in? Democracy and the Politics of Silence investigates the largely overlooked role of silence in democratic politics. It challenges conventional wisdom by arguing that silence can support and affirm democratic pillars and outcomes like empowerment, inclusion, and equality. Rather than focusing on theory, Brito Vieira explores real-world examples, including the Silent Parade of African Americans in 1916, demonstrations by the Women in Black in Serbia and Falun Gong practitioners in China, Gandhi's political vows of silence, debates related to the representation and rights of nonhuman beings, and the famous Miranda judgment on the right to silence. Through these and other case studies, the author demonstrates how silence can be a means of building political community and resisting despotic rule. She reveals the power in silences, as well as their limitations, illuminating the complex relationship between speech and silence. In thus expanding the repertoire of democratic citizenship, Brito Vieira invites readers to consider what silence might teach them about democracy. This timely book should appeal to political science students and scholars as well as anyone interested in the history of democracies and popular resistance movements.
Monica Brito Vieira is Professor of Political Science at the University of York. She is the author of The Elements of Representation in Hobbes: Aesthetics, Theatre, Law and Theology in the Construction of Hobbes's Theory of the State and the coauthor of The Politics of the Book: A Study on the Materiality of Ideas, the latter also published by Penn State University Press.
"Displaying great intellectual dexterity and theoretical originality, this book successfully recuperates silence for democracy, understood not only as a set of institutions but also as a practice of power, an identity, and a normative order. An audacious and curious thinker, Brito Vieira goes off the beaten track and combines exemplary scholarship with refreshing insights into the unexpected political mechanics of silence." -Mihaela Mihai,author of Political Memory and the Aesthetics of Care: The Art of Complicity and Resistance "What does silence say to us? In this intriguing book, Brito Vieira shows how little we know and understand about it. Rather than the absence of politics, she shows silence to be pluripotent with political implications and practices. Silence's politics emerge through intriguing examples, trenchant criticisms, and startling enactments. This book makes it impossible to hear silence in the same way." -Kennan Ferguson,editor of The Big No
