This article presents a critical reading on liberal democracy from the post-structuralist theories proposed by Jacques Rancière and Ernesto Laclau. It begins with the discussion about conformism relating to liberal representative democracy and its resistance to consider popular will over strict respect for the law. For both authors, democracy is not a political regime with established institutions, but, on the contrary, it is precisely a principle of taking into consideration the will of demos. In this sense, democracy is the moment when very institutions are challenged by the construction of collective wills, of antagonistic discourses which promote dissent or structural dislocation, according to perspectives by Rancière and Laclau, respectively.
democracy; dissent; dislocation; Rancière; Laclau