A Nietzschean defense of democracy

the long version

Nietzsche was wrong to repudiate democracy, since democratic politics can be more amenable to his own way of thinking than he imagined. Yet Nietzsche was right to expose fundamental flaws in traditional democratic theory, especially the modernist emphasis on human equality, rational subjectivity, and natural rights. Lawrence Hatab offers a postmodern account of democracy freed from traditional assumptions expressed in the Enlightenment project. He shows that democratic politics need not be based on egalitarianism or essentialism and need not be identified with a conformist mediocrity; rather it can be construed as an agonistic pluralism and an unrestricted meritocracy, both of which are consonant with Nietzsche's outlook.