postpolitics

Postpolitics denotes a condition in which fundamental political disagreements are deemphasized or depoliticized, replaced by technocratic management, technocratic expertise, and market-oriented arrangements. In postpolitical regimes, public policy is framed as neutral problem-solving or managerial efficiency rather than contested moral or normative choices. Critics argue this yields consensus without genuine democratic opposition, and legitimates existing power structures rather than challenging them.

The term gained prominence in late 20th and early 21st-century political theory and sociology. Peter Mair argued that Western democracies had entered a postpolitics era in which parties converge around technocratic governance and consensus. Chantal Mouffe, while analyzing related processes, contends that postpolitics suppresses antagonism and pluralism; she advocates agonistic democracy where conflict remains legitimate and contestable.

Key features include depoliticization of policy choices as technical or administrative matters; the expansion of technocratic expertise and managerial logics; reliance on market mechanisms and efficiency metrics; the normalization of compromise and consensus in place of visible political struggles; and the mediation of conflict through media spectacles and public relations.

Critics argue postpolitics erodes democratic accountability by elevating technocratic truths over political contestation, builds legitimacy through proceduralism rather than substantive differences, and marginalizes social movements. Proponents of alternatives such as Mouffe's agonistic pluralism or Rancière's distribution of the sensible seek to reinstate genuine political antagonism and public disagreement.

In practice, postpolitics tendencies are discussed in analyses of European governance, climate policy, and austerity politics, where policy choices are framed as scientific or technical rather than political decisions about societal goals. The concept remains contested and is used as a lens to examine the resilience and limits of democratic systems.