The threshold of democracy in José Saramago’s 'Seeing'
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.v23i45.33577Keywords:
Lucidity. Saramago. Democracy. State of exception. Elections. Blank votes.Abstract
Seeing was written by José Saramago in 2004, and starts from the assumption that the population can start a silent backlash by casting blank votes in local elections, thus disrupting the normality of the democratic system. Between culpability and action, free choice and the decline of human rights, this book questions the authenticity of democracy as it stands in the present Western societies. Confronted with the dangers of a biopolitical manipulation, casting blank votes hints the potency of a state of exception, in which the population can exercise power based on conscience. This essay looks into the confronting positions of the ruling power and of the population that is governed by that very power.
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Original in English.
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