This prioritization provides a basis for questioning the centrality which has been attributed to other problems and issues. Let me briefly mention two. First, the centrality attributed to ‘sub-politics’ or ‘life politics’ by theorists of ‘reflexive modernity’, which is linked to the recent prominence of ‘identity politics’. This accords with the perspective above in giving prominence to ‘grassroots’ political action, but clashes with it in construing such politics as an alternative to adversarial politics centred around the political system. The ‘grassroots’ politics of politicization is both defined and limited by the opposing logic of depoliticization, which means that state- and government-focused adversarial politics is by no means outdated. Second, the centrality attributed by, for instance, those influenced by Habermas to ‘deliberative democracy’ also tends to be associated with the assumption that adversarial politics can be superseded and to construe political dialogue as a rational process of consensus-formation, rather than a process which allows divisions, differences and conflicts to be contained within a shared political community without the assumption that these are just ‘problems’ waiting to be ‘solved’. In different theoretical terms, we could say: these are contradictions, and although they can be managed, they cannot be solved within the parameters of the existing system (Jessop. 2002). This does not diminish or ignore cooperation in politics: conflict in political dialogue requires cooperation (only those who are cooperating at a certain level can stage a conflict), and adversarial politics necessarily includes cooperative moments (e.g. the formation of alliances).