Power and Democracy in Claude Lefort

In a brief introduction, I indicate the terms of Lefort's thought on power and democracy, as well as the purpose of this essay. In the first part, I tackle the concept of power through his own symbolic approach following his thoughts on Machiavelli. In the second part, I expose his conception of democracy in the perspective of his reflection on the research of Tocqueville, which indicates to him the essential mutation that meant the birth of modern democracy and its fundamental characteristics; at the end of this part, we see the fusion of both notions. Finally, I expose some critical conclusions and future aspects to develop of his thought.