This essay examines Theodor W. Adorno’s politics and ethics. Taking issue with sympathetic readings that overlook both his radical structural critique and his political limitations, I argue for a return to questions of collective agency and social ethics. I suggest that a democratic politics of global transformation is required in order to do justice to Adorno’s insights. The essay is a revised excerpt from Chapter 6 in Social Philosophy after Adorno (Cambridge UP, 2007).
