From the People to Populism and Back Again Cover Image

A néptől a populizmusig, és vissza (E. Laclau: A populista ész)
From the People to Populism and Back Again

Author(s): Zsolt Tordai
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Philosophy, Social Sciences, Political Theory, Political Sciences, Sociology, Politics and society
Published by: Fordulat
Keywords: populism;laclau;post-marxism;

Summary/Abstract: If we want to understand how politics really works and/or open up new ways for the criticismof regimes replacing democratic ideas by institutionalism, it is worth to take a lookat the logic of populism. This is the leading statement of Ernesto Laclau, prominent figureof post-marxist political philosophy. The Argentine political theorist’s most importantbook is the Hegemony and Social Strategy (1985) co-authored with Chantal Mouffe. Intheir work they focus on political indentities and discursive strategies of social movements,developing sharp divergences from the dogmatic Marxian class theory. Laclau’slatest book, On Populist Reason, has similar ideological bases. In his approarch populismis neither a social movement nor an ideology. In his book he tries to liberate populismfrom preconceptions and redefine it in a discursive way. Laclau pays special attention tothe populist discourses, in the aspect of how they are created by a democratic demandand to ’the plebs’, wich defines themself as ’populus’ fighting with the hegemonic power.His book published in 2005 has been translated to Hungarian last year. This delay let usdeeply consider how can his theoretical framework help us to interprete the ideology ofthe radical movements rising after the global economic crisis.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 18
  • Page Range: 136-144
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Hungarian