It may seem odd to include Guy Debord in a panel about rethinking democratic politics. After all, he was the de facto leader of the Situationist International (SI), a select and highly exclusionary organization, for its entire 15-year existence. Moreover, his crucial concept of the 'spectacle' emerges directly out of the Marxist tradition, a body of theory that historically paid little attention to questions about the nature of 'politics' or 'democracy.' Yet the democratic impulse of Debord's political thought should not be so easily dismissed. Indeed, my paper will draw out the aspects of his work that point toward a radical notion of politics as an inherently conflictual and divisive process. In particular, I will focus on Debord's concept of a 'situation,' which, like all of Debord's films, is premised on confronting its audience, spurring them into action and forcing them ultimately to reconsider or at least reveal their position. While this concept is not democratic in and of itself, I will argue that, when considered in tandem with Debord's notions of 'play,' 'festival,' and his advocacy of workers' councils, the 'situation' helps us to understand the practice associated with a democratic politics of division