Postmodernism and Politics

Modernism and modernity refer to similar but non-identical aspects of 20th-century life. The first concerns movements which seek to strip representations of their lifeworld referents, the immediate narratives forming the core of our everyday, takenfor-granted worlds of life experience. Political and economic modernity, on the other hand, has to do with growth-oriented planning and production, with a pluralist political system in which class politics is replaced by interest group struggles, and with a strong bureaucracy which can regulate relations among, and between, money and human capital. Most postmodernist discourse is directed towards the deconstruction of the myths of modernism while leaving modernity as the best context within which its eclectic and diverse activities may flourish.