Chapter 1: Subjective Figures of the Crisis ... - Negri in English

(metaphysical) passage from the "will of all" that constitutes
society to the "general will," that is, the will of those preselected
by all but who respond to none. As Carl Schmitt says, to
represent means to make present an absence or, really, a no one.
Schmitt's conclusion is perfectly coherent with Rousseau's
presuppositions, which themselves are expressed in the US
Constitution and the constitutions of the French Revolution. The
paradox of representation is complete. It is surprising only that it
could function for so long and, in its emptiness, could only have
done so supported by the will of the powerful, the possessors of
wealth, the producers of information, and the solicitors of fear,
preaching superstition and violence.
Today, however, even if we were to believe the modern
myths of representation and accept it as a vehicle of democracy,
the political context that makes it possible has radically
diminished. Since systems of representation were constructed
primarily on the national level, the emergence of a global power
structure dramatically undermines them. The emerging global
institutions make little pretense to represent the will of
populations. Policy accords are agreed on and business contracts
are signed and guaranteed within the structures of global
governance, outside of any representative capacity of the
nation-states. Whether there exist "constitutions without states,"
the function of representation that, in a mystified way, pretended
to put the people in pow T er is surely no longer effective in this
global terrain.
And the represented What remains of its qualities as
citizen in this global context No longer an active participant in
political life, the represented finds itself poor among the poor,
fighting in the jungle of this social life, alone. If it does not rouse
its vital senses and aw T aken its appetite for democracy, it will
become a pure product of pow T er, the empty shell of a mechanism
of governance that no longer makes reference to the
citizen-w T orker. The represented, then, like the other figures, is
the product of mystification. Just as the indebted is denied
control of its productive social pow T er; just as the intelligence,
affective capacities, and powers of linguistic invention of the
mediatized are betrayed; and just as the securitized, living in a
w T orld reduced to fear and terror, is deprived of every possibility