This project addressed discrepancies between institutional democracy and its justification as representing “the people."' By focusing on democracy as expressing, or at least intending to express, the will of the populace, desire took center stage. Foundational to understanding the actual functioning of contemporary democracy, desire serves as an elusive legitimating principle, where invocations of the "consent of the geverned" and other such formulations abound. Initially, populism was posited as an expression of excess desire that could not be contained within the bounds of institutional democracy. This hypothesis held up, albeit in a novel way. In its conclusions, this research supports a theory of populism as a kind of political “mood” which conditions the realms of possibility attached to political practices. While populism provides perhaps the most obvious demonstration of desires excluded from the scope of traditional democratic politics, it is not the only mood available and only forms one node of democratic excess. Furthermore, the excision of desires incompatible with the status quo only serves to see them return in a virulent form. As populist movements have shown, these desires returns with a vengeance.The contemporary democratic state will hurl accusations of populism and resentment at anything outside of standard procedure, forgetting a foundational element of constituency building: namely, turning from what is to what could be. This requires the articulation of a possible future that would foundationally change institutions themselves, and comprise a new system and practices. While populism can be directed any which way on the political spectrum, this research has demonstrated that populism is not really the issue but a symptom, and desire the underlying culprit since it serves as the very ground for what is thought collectively possible. To this end, the project's research on populism has led to a broader theory of political desire, paying particular attention to the semiotic and symbolic dimensions required to forge a democratic future.
*NB - For project photos, specifically the various promotional materials, please see the website as the files were too large to upload, but they can be pulled from there or sent in a different file. They do give a sense of project activities and are worthwhile to give a sense of how the project unfolded.
