Laclau Research Articles

Becoming Through Detachment

Abstract This article contributes to the growing literature around the idea of a politics of becoming by emphasizing its deconstructive dimension. It advances the notion of “detachment,” which articulates different angles of such deconstructive dimension. Detachment can draw from three different concepts: displacement (Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe), unframing (Judith Butler), and disidentification (Jacques Rancière). After highlighting the key points of each of these concepts and the way they contribute to an encompassing notion of detachment, the article moves to a brief illustration of how these concepts are relevant to make sense of contemporary protests, focusing specifically on the Brazilian June Journeys of 2013.

From responsibility to risk: ethics in the Bermuda Triangle of EU research and innovation policy

Abstract This paper aims to trace how the meaning of ethics in the research and innovation (R&I) sector is discursively and procedurally revised within two consecutive modes of legitimizing public policies in the European Union (EU), namely, good governance and better regulation. The text draws insight from Ernesto Laclau’s work on discursivity, contingency, and hegemony and Chantal Mouffe’s critique of consensual political theories. It shows that with the policy transition from responsible innovation to breakthrough and disruptive innovation, the possibilities to employ ethics in interrogating the ambiguous nature of science and technology advancement become very limited. Ethics is currently construed as a means for unclogging the innovation process and embracing the collective production of risks. The paper demonstrates that the recent emptying of ethics within EU R&I is an expected effect of hegemonization practices and discursive configurations promoting and stabilizing the science–market alliance in science and policy relations.

Discourse Analysis of Social Justice Policies in Post-Revolutionary Iran

: The article aims to analyze the discursive transformations of social justice to realize social welfare during five successive administrations in the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1981 to 2021. It analyzes institutional texts and official speeches by the presidents of each administration based on the discourse analysis method of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The findings demonstrate that each government differently articulated the signifier of justice in its social policies. However, the central signification was tied to ‘poverty eradication’ in all five administrations. However, social justice was not considered a comprehensive discourse nor an inclusive strategic process, but rather was defined discursively by each government as a government-oriented project in a short-term perspective, mainly by reducing social justice to economic growth and redistribution of resources. Finally, according to the comprehensive discourse of the Islamic Revolution, I suggest the need to redefine social justice as the aim of realizing social welfare in Iranian society with regard to the comprehensive, multi-dimensional definition of justice which include: (1) equal access to resources and opportunities by providing backgrounds, range and scope for such opportunities; (2) considering the principle of entitlement and necessities; and (3) attention to redistributive justice and expansion of the government’s sup portive umbrella by focusing on the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups (social, physical and mental).

A Caliphate of Ideas? Islamic Politics in Dialogue with Contemporary Marxism

This article deconstructs the conceptual framework of the social theorist Salman Sayyid by critically examining his work on the political and hegemony in relation to the thought of the post-Marxist philosopher Ernesto Laclau. Sayyid elaborates a theory of the political that necessitates a communal break with existing society, a move very similar to Laclau and post-Marxist thought more generally. In analyzing Sayyid’s theories of the caliphate with Laclau’s conception of hegemonic struggle, the author suggests that the construction of any caliphate should think about the question of solidarity with “plebs” or those discarded from the system of capitalism. The article concludes with an analysis of how Sayyid’s theoretical praxis can be applied in American Muslim political activism through the concept of the counterpublic.

От бонапартизма к популизму. Латиноамериканское прочтение «18 брюмера Луи Бонапарта»

The eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte was in 1852 a bumpy edi-tion and a circulation limited to German emigrants in the United States, without the slightest direct impact on the events of contempo-rary France. The French public only knew a translation in 1891, when Louis Bonaparte's regime had collapsed two decades earlier. However, the work of Karl Marx became a classic in the first decades of the twen-tieth century, while the notion of Bonapartism transcended its national and epochal context, to become a category of modern political thought thought. With Trotsky's exile in Mexico in 1937, the notion was in-corporated into the Latin American political vocabulary to account for Cardenismo and other national-popular regimes that emerged on this continent throughout the twentieth century. After intensive use, the term fell into disuse in the 1980s, being displaced by a surrogate notion, that of populism, elaborated by the Argentine political scientist Ernesto Laclau.

The development of a smart political moral economy in Africa: discourse, legitimisation, disciplining, and hegemony

This paper uses and expands the concept of a ‘political moral economy’ to better understand elite attempts to justify and promote capitalist development strategies linked to the proliferation of ‘smart technologies’ such as big data, mobile communications, and the construction of hi-tech cities. Drawing on an Ideology and Discourse analysis perspective on hegemony introduced by Ernesto Laclau and Chantel Mouffe, it aims to show how market-based ‘smart development’ across the African continent has discursively incorporated resistance moralities associated with popular critiques of elite corruption, foreign exploitation, and local economic marginalisation for its overall political success. To do so, it will focus on the case of ‘Leapfrogging development’ discourses and the planned construction of the Technopolis Konza in Kenya. The key advance of this article is showing how dominant ideologies – and the domestic and foreign regimes of elite power they support – can be strengthened through processes of ‘moral legitimisation’ and ‘moral disciplining’. Specifically, this moral dimension of hegemony involves the ongoing incorporation and strategic redeployment of existing and emergent normative discourses for the purpose of providing political legitimacy to these governing ideologies and further attempting to normatively regulate populations in accordance with their core values and interests – even in the face of their practical and ongoing failures as policies.

The Discourse of Christianity in Viktor Orbán’s Rhetoric

This paper studies the views of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on religion and Christianity, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The analysis is based on Viktor Orbán’s speeches in Băile Tușnad, at Bálványos Free Summer University and Student Camp (commonly known as Tusványos), which are suitable to sensitively trace the evolution of his thinking from 1990 to 2022. The analysis shows how the concept of Christianity has changed in meaning in the speeches, how it has been linked to political issues, and in what ways Orbán’s thinking has been similar to and different from political Christianity and religious Christianity. Orbán’s concept of Christianity can be understood within the theoretical framework of populism developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe: in the discursive struggle for political hegemony, there is a continuous construction of ‘the people’, of society, in which ‘empty markers’ play a key role. Orbán’s concept of Christianity can thus be adequately interpreted in terms of the discourse of the permanent creation of the ‘nation’. The political emphasis on Christianity is related to the wounded collective identity of Hungarian society. The paper argues that because of the collective woundedness, society requires an overarching narrative symbolizing unity, of which Christianity is a key concept.

How ‘empty’ is the signifier ‘the people’? Impasses of the poststructuralist approach in Ernesto Laclau’s political ontology

ABSTRACT This article looks at the ‘empty signifier’, a central but nonetheless elusive concept for understanding the logic that underpins the political construction of ‘the people’ as it was theorized in On Populist Reason. It begins by examining its epistemological foundations, which revisit the principles of Saussurean modern linguistics, and its limitations based on a critique of (post)structuralist literature. Among the authors that Ernesto Laclau mobilized, particular attention is paid to the ‘logic of the signifier’ in Lacanian theory. The article then moves on to an analysis of the concept within the broader framework of the political ontology of which it is part (‘discourse theory’). This is followed by a discussion of recent examples of the use of symbols in the construction of concrete ‘popular’ or ‘populist’ identities. The question is whether the ‘empty’ and ‘floating’ signifiers are truly empty and how Laclau explains this ‘emptiness’. More globally, our aim is to identify the impasses in the theory of political subjectivation around empty signifiers. In conclusion, this article argues that there are some problems associated with the conception of signifiers, such as that ‘empty’ seems to refer in an ambiguous way to different ‘degrees’ of emptiness leading to theoretical and practical consequences.

Prefiguring the counter-hegemony of open cooperativism: The case of Open Food Network

Drawing on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's discourse theory of hegemony, the paper introduces a chain of equivalence that articulates discourses such as “commons-based peer production”, “partner state” and “ethical market entities” around the counter-hegemony of open cooperativism vis-à-vis the current hegemony of neoliberalism. The paper sets out to empirically test its theoretical premises by reviewing the Open Food Network as an illustrative case-study of open cooperativism. The Open Food Network deploys the digital commons to launch short food supply chains and bring about systemic change in agriculture. Τhe paper suggests that for the Open Food Network to contribute to systemic change in agriculture and beyond it may create cross-sectoral synergies across the economy, civil society and politics to help articulate a chain of equivalence linking up ethical market entities, the commons and a partner state around the model of open cooperativism.

Bolsonarism: What's in a Name?

Adopting the discursive notion of populism, derived mainly from the works of Ernesto Laclau, the article explores the construction of identities in the discourse of the Brazilian far-right, which has former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro as its main representative. Arguing that Bolsonaro’s supporters (the people of Bolsonarism) are grounded in an articulation of meanings that, despite the nationalist tone, is constructed in a populist manner, the article demonstrates how these meanings relate to historical frameworks and permeate social relations at different levels, restoring old political and cultural traditions to create antagonisms that, in turn, result in a highly fragmented political identity of the people, condensed in the signifier of the “good citizen”. By pointing out the relevance of observing the cultural and historical elements of each case, the article sheds light on the role played by the mobilisation of negative affects in the processes of identification and construction of the people.

Incompatible sovereigns: Populism, democracy and the two peoples

The article aims to investigate the problematic relationship between populism and democracy by comparing the conceptions of ‘the people’ and popular sovereignty which they presuppose. In the first two sections, the populist and the democratic ‘peoples’ are reconstructed, and the unbridgeable gap dividing them is highlighted. The discussion of the democratic people requires a concise analysis of the main contemporary democratic frameworks, including deliberative democracy, ‘neo-Roman’ republicanism, agonistic democracy. The article works out the implications of the incompatibility between the two ‘sovereign peoples’ identified, and concludes that such an incompatibility undercuts the kinship of populism and democracy. While populism is often said to intertwine with democracy in some way, the article argues that it significantly departs from democratic theory and practice, and belongs to a distinct conceptual space. It cannot be made to overlap with ‘illiberal democracy’, a ‘democratic myth’, a crude electoral majoritarianism, nor does it amount to hiding undemocratic policies into properly democratic justifications. The boundary dividing populism and democracy, therefore, starts unfolding at the level of the conception of the people. While democratic theory invariably assumes a people intended as simultaneously heterogeneous and united, populism conceives of the people as a moral whole, internally undifferentiated, whose homogeneity and intrinsic righteousness preclude the task of specifying what popular sovereignty ultimately means. Such specification, on the other hand, is inescapable for any democrat assuming the people as a composite unity. The last section addresses four possible objections to the argument, variously formulated by Ernesto Laclau and by scholars approaching populism from a post-Laclauian or discursive-performative perspective.

Rallying Around Empty Signifiers: Understanding and Defiing Anit-Givernemnt Protest in the Netherlands

As in many other parts of Europe, anti-government protest has been a topic of political and academic discussion in the Netherlands for some years. The definition of what anti-government protest entails and which groups and individuals it refers to is not as straightforward as it may seem. Where other institutions have attempted to place anti-governmental protest movements in frameworks of traditional extremist movements, the Dutch authorities describe the anti-government protestors as a group that is characterised by its pluriformity and fluidity. In 2022, they have even changed the term ‘anti-governmental’ to ‘anti-institutional’ to more broadly refer to the set of targets that the movement opposes, which includes government, but also the media, the scientific community, experts and the judicial system. In this paper we try to understand the anti-government, or anti-institutional, protest in the Netherlands using a different lens. We use Ernesto Laclau’s discourse theory and its concept of empty signifiers to show how opposed interests and goals can be seen as a unified ideology to its proponents. Instead of trying to primarily define the group of people who are anti-government by their actions or characteristics, we look at how those actors define themselves and how they see their struggle against the authorities. We describe the rise and dynamics of anti-government protest in the Netherlands since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on “genealogies” and the eclectic topics of the protest movement. We compare our observations with the definition of anti-governmental protest and the anti-institutional narrative as used by the authorities. We arrive at the conclusion that analysing the anti-government protest through the lens of their shared ideas and grievances gives us more insight into the nature and dynamics of this movement than solely looking through the lens of the potential threat to the

Constructing the enemy: the evolution of Podemos’ populist discourse from anti-system movement to power (2014–2021)

ABSTRACT Podemos has been the object of extensive attention since its foundation in 2014. However, most of the academic works focus on its initial rise, which prevents a broader analysis of the evolution of its populist discourse after they reached the Spanish government in 2020. Covering this gap, this paper argues that Podemos’ populism operates as a discursive logic aimed at constructing the political by spreading antagonisms. Following the post-Marxist theories of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Podemos’ leaders understand politics as a cultural exercise whose essential component is a permanent redefinition of the people and anti-people categories according to context. Based on this framework, the paper develops a qualitative analysis of Podemos’ discourse in the period 2014–2021. By focusing on the discursive manifestations of its main leaders, the paper shows the rhetorical turns that try to reconcile the contradictions between an initial street-level populism and a subsequent populism in power. Thus, the original people/caste antagonism is replaced by the classical left/right divide, which shows the difficult coexistence of two different approaches to populism within Podemos. Once in government, the reframing of the left/right dichotomy as democracy/fascism will lend continuity to a populist understanding of politics.

Power Hegemony: The New Era of Chinese Socialism with the Character of XI Jinping

This research seeks to unravel the influence of Xi Jinping's "superpower" on the world as a sign of a new era of Chinese socialism with the character of Xi Jinping. Reliable and mystical ideas put Xi Jinping on an equal footing with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. This means that the dogma of Chinese socialism is entering a new era with the character of Xi Jinping's thought. Using the theory of hegemony proposed by Ernesto Laclau, this research reveals Xi Jinping's ideas that are the truth agreement of Chinese society and the regions within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. More than his predecessors, Xi Jinping has sought to lock down western ideas and push for economic harmonization of a version of "market socialism."

Jakarta Toba Batak Subject Position in Toba Batak Mangongkal Holi Discourse: Laclau Discourse Analysis

A secondary burial practice known as Mangongkal Holi originated in the Toba Batak people. For hundreds of years, the Toba Batak tribe has incorporated this ceremony completely. Mangongkal Holi, unlike other Indonesian burial customs that have been successful in attracting tourists like the Ngaben and Rambu Solo celebrations, is going through an existential crisis, as evidenced by the somewhat less intense manner in which it is currently being practiced. The purpose of this study is to examine how the discourse around the Mangongkal Holi rite contributes to the development of Toba Batak cultural identity. In-depth interviews with Toba Batak tribal members served as the source of the research's data, along with a literature review. This study uses Ernesto Laclau's insight analysis as its analytical framework. According to the findings, the Mangongkal Holi ritual was articulated into four nodal points: reverence for ancestors, indifference to other religions, prestige, and unity. Based on the subject position analysis, the individuals from Jakarta Toba Batak demonstrate that there is a contingency of identity for Jakarta Toba Batak in the Mangongkal Holi discourse brought on by the individual's involvement with traditional institutions. The Mangongkal Holi rite seeks to promote clan harmony among those Jakarta Toba Batak people who have a close relationship with adat. It is no longer relevant to the social reality of Jakarta, which stresses efficiency in all aspects of life, such as time and money efficiency, for Jakarta Toba Batak people who are far from the Mangongkal Holi ceremony.

Dissident women’s organizations as a counter-hegemonic actor in Turkey

ABSTRACT Could the Turkish women’s movement, which has a strong reaction mechanism, be a constituent actor of counter-hegemony? The main reasons behind this question are the women’s movement’s deep-rooted history and its openness to combine theory with practice/action. When looked from the Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau’s perspective of radical democracy theory, the women’s movement appears to have a considerable potential of deciphering the existing hegemony and articulating the social demands which exclude and are excluded by the present-day hegemony in Turkey. This article tries to understand how women’s movement in Turkey conceptualizes the existing power relations that constitute the neoliberal religio-conservative hegemony and how it responds to it.

The Break between Old and New Orders in Laclau’s Theory of Hegemony

Drawing inspiration from Alain Badiou’s philosophical project of thinking radical change and novelty, this paper raises the question of whether Ernesto Laclau’s theory of hegemony provides an adequate conceptualization of social change. Laclau claims that the transition between old and new hegemonic formations constitutes a “radical break.” However, it shall be shown that Laclau’s claim apropos radical break is in tension with his elaboration of the conditions under which a particularity – including particular political projects or social orders – may become hegemonic. As a result, how a process of transformation is to be conceptually distinguished from a process of reproduction is left unclear within the hegemony theory.

Translation and the political: antagonism and hegemony

ABSTRACT Interest in the political dimensions of translation is well established. There has been less focus in translation studies, however, on understanding the nature of the political itself. This leaves the concept fuzzy and limits its analytical power. This article begins to address this gap by drawing on the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe to offer a precisely articulated understanding of the political. This approach is illustrated through examination of divergent concepts of “translation” in translation studies and in the field of knowledge translation in medicine, suggesting that antagonism and hegemony, key aspects of the political in Laclau and Mouffe’s approach, play central roles in both cases. This approach allows the political to be more clearly differentiated from the social, cultural and aesthetic while also bringing the relationships between it and those other dimensions more clearly into view.

Gerakan Fajar Nusantara: Sebuah Proyek Agonistik (?)

The Fajar Nusantara Movement, also known as GAFATAR was born as a “religion” and a new movement. Through this paper, I discuss the existence of GAFATAR. The discussion begin by looking at the context in which GAFATAR was born, especially after the movement was widely known due to mass media coverage. After that, I will see GAFATAR as an antagonism vis a vis state in its position. To discuss these problems, I use the method of writing observation literature. The object of study to be examined is: “To what extent can the GAFATAR movement be seen as an antagonism?” Then, the object material from the observation of the literature refers to two things: (1) the history of the birth of GAFATAR and (2) the dynamics of the GAFATAR movement. Limiting the scope of discussion, I choose to see GAFATAR as a political movement, thus setting aside the dogmatic teaching of Islam, which is also the background to the birth of GAFATAR. The purpose of this limitation is to allow the position of GAFATAR to be seen as a new social movement. This paper will focus on understanding GAFATAR as an agonistic project by considering it from the theoretical perspectives of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe.

The polysemy of an empty signifier: the various uses of Ernesto Laclau’s puzzling concept

ABSTRACT The concept of empty signifier is possibly the most prominent among those developed by Ernesto Laclau. However, despite its success among discourse theorists, this notion remains puzzling. It has been used in various contexts and different configurations, and has become polysemic. My goal is to attempt to clarify this concept. To do so, my study is divided into two parts. First, I go back to the psychoanalytic concepts that seem to have informed Laclau’s earlier formulations on the empty signifier. Second, I revisit Laclau’s work to highlight five different uses he made of the notion of empty signifier. In different contexts in Laclau’s work, the empty signifier named (1) a symbol of the pure being of the symbolic system; (2) a particular demand that represents all other particular political struggles; (3) a ‘negative’ symbol that names an antagonistic other; (4) a symbol whose content is problematically poor; and (5) a symbol pointing to an open identity. Whereas I conclude that it is not possible to produce one simple definition of empty signifier, I argue that we should not reject the concept, but rather use it to grasp the complexity of processes of identification.