Socialist Strategy Research Articles

Political Ontology and Emancipation in Castoriadis and Laclau–Mouffe

Abstract Cornelius Castoriadis’ The Imaginary Institution of Society and Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's Hegemony and Socialist Strategy are two cornerstones of contemporary political philosophy. Insufficient consideration has been given to the fact that both works show important theoretical coincidences in terms of structure and content. The first part of this article explores the possibility of reading Castoriadis’ work in post-foundational terms, following Oliver Marchart's approach. In addition, the respective political ontologies of Castoriadis and Laclau and Mouffe are presented as ‘ontologies of signification’ in which the imaginary/discursive component is central. Finally, the contributions of the three authors to the emancipatory project through the notions of ‘autonomy’ (Castoriadis) and ‘radical democracy’ (Laclau and Mouffe) are considered, highlighting both their common features and their divergences. The latter had to do mainly with their antagonistic conceptions of political representation and its relation to democracy.

The Labour Left from Benn to Momentum: continuity and change in strategy and tactics

AbstractPrevious works have correctly highlighted the strategic and tactical convergences between the Bennite New Left and the Corbyn insurgency. However, such scholarship has underestimated the impact of the differences in the composition between the two intra-party movements. Critically, while the Benn project developed as an attempt to update Labour strategy in times of social upheaval, Momentum and the Corbyn movement emerged as a hybrid alliance between New Left veterans and the extra-parliamentary anti-austerity and libertarian left. This impacted the Left’s conceptualisation of socialist strategy and led to disagreements over tactics. This paper will explain how, despite these differences, the 2010s Left ended up reproducing the core tenets of New Left’s strategy and tactics. This outcome is explained as a consequence of a convergent conceptualisation of social change and the persistence of intra-party conflicts.

После неолиберализма и его провала: ноономика как возможность

The 2008 global financial crash and its ongoing spiraling consequences mark the failure of neoliberalism as a strategy of exit from the crisis following the collapse of the post-World War II international Bretton Woods Keynesian framework. Technological progress per se cannot solve the strategic impasse as the problems in productivity growth demonstrate. Modernization itself has to overcome the obstacles posed by a fundamental crisis of late modernity in the epoch of advanced capitalist decline noonomy provides an open field of research of the relations between scientific-technological progress and political economy in the 21st century. It focus on the progress of integration of science into a cognition based social production without exploitation. A comparative study with the ‘General Intellect” concept advanced by Karl Marx in Grundrisse and the related debates on this topic during the last decades could be fruitful. In this context, noonomy provides new insights and possibilities for a re-elaboration of a socialist strategy of exit from the global crisis.

Different logics of social and political analysis

The article is a detailed consideration of the poststructuralist concept, which is developed in the work "Logic of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory" by D. Glinos and D. Howarth, and will arouse the interest of all those engaged in discursive research. In the work of professors of the University of Essex, the forces of social and political philosophy carried out a deep study of the discursive paradigm, first conceptually outlined in the work of S. Mouff and E. Laclo "Hegemony and socialist strategy", which has not yet been translated into Russian. The "new ontology" proposed by Mouff and Laclos became the basis for the original scientific school. The reviewed monograph is presented as a new round of development of this research direction. Based on the ontological attitudes of the discursive paradigm, Glinos and Howarth propose a postpositivist model of social sciences based on abduction, a problem-oriented approach (problematization), the need to take into account both the "hermeneutic" and "materialistic" components, both the objective and subjective sides of the social. The schemes they form for socio-political analysis seem analytically valuable. Of course, there are alternatives to them, but one of the key consequences of the discursive paradigm is the installation not on the competition of ontic approaches, but on their unification, since it is important to rely on what one or another approach brings to social knowledge, and not what it contradicts to another approach.

Theory after Practice

Theory after Practice

Political rhetoric, identities, and dominant gender representations: hegemonic masculinity in service of pro-austerity rhetoric in Greek political discourse

ABSTRACT This article examines the construction of hegemonic masculinity in Greek political discourse, by analysing minutes from the Greek Parliament at the height of the economic crisis in 2010–2012. Based on Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity and the application of a discursive approach inspired by Laclau and Mouffe ([1985]. Hegemony and socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics. London: Verso), the article asks: (1) which discourses constituted the rhetoric of Greek elite politicians regarding economic policies during the crisis and (2) which hegemonic concepts of masculinity and femininity did Greek elite politicians elaborate upon and discursively position themselves in. It also reflects on the implications of the gendered speeches of these elite politicians. The article shows how the rhetoric of elite politicians includes different identities normatively related to manhood. The article argues that the construction of these gender dominant gender representations in the political discourse has severe implications in terms of functioning as a means of justification of austerity measures in Greek economy with negative consequences for politics and society. It is also argued that by adopting elements of hegemonic masculinity, Greek elite politicians contribute to creating an image of a powerful man to whom citizens should adhere, hence reproducing the male (white and heterosexual) norm.

Segnico, simbolico, politico

This article explores some central features of the theory of signification put forward by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, taking into account both Hegemony and Socialist Strategy and some further reflections developed by Laclau alone. Through the analysis of the concepts of discourse, empty signifier, dislocation and antagonism it is argued that, in the discourse-theoretical framework, the Saussurean “arbitrariness of the sign” can be limited only through the symbolic unification of a discourse and the drawing of antagonistic frontiers, and that these latter processes rest on contingent decisions, that is operations pertaining to the order of the political.

Visions of the future – a socialist departure from gloom?

A vision of universalised human freedom, equality, security and democracy emerged in the wake of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, the British Industrial Revolution, and the French Revolution. This vision, not even approximately practicable at the time, is now well within reach. A viable socialist strategy will not be oriented around an encompassing central plan but rather an agenda of human-centred goals – the creation of preconditions for all individuals to fully realise their personal capacities and to function as free citizens, exercising control individually and collectively, at the workplace and in society. Central to the realisation of such a programme will be a focus on the crucial role played by the first years of life in shaping human development and in the formation of class hierarchies. JEL codes: B51, H40, P16

Socialist Strategy and the Capitalist Democratic State

Socialist Strategy and the Capitalist Democratic State

Contextualizing the Politics of Ten-Household Cluster Initiatives (Nyumba Kumi) for Human Security in Kenya

National security has been a preserve of the State to the detriment of the welfare of the masses. Human security on the other hand incorporates the basic security elements that are globally recognized and touch on the daily lives of the masses. The Ten Household Cluster Initiatives that have been practiced in East Asia, Caribbean and parts of Western Europe and adapted in Eastern Africa are an avenue through which human security can be addressed though they are tightly controlled by the state and characterized by human rights flaws. Their rationalization is anchored in theories of individualism and communitarianism that locate the roles of individuals and groups in power relations. Kenya's Nyumba Kumi initiative should be redesigned and implemented with hindsight onto the global and continental initiatives. It is imperative to hybridize the initiative with elements from East Asia, Western Europe and Africa for it to make impact on human security. An ideological backup is also needed to entrench it in the population that has been convinced that the initiative is basically a socialist strategy to control the masses. Yet this strategy can be modernized to address not only security but also social, economic and enviornmnetal concerns in neighborhoods and communities.

Contesting Welfare Discourses in Post-New Order Indonesia

This article analyses the contestation of 'welfare' discourses in Indonesia since the fall of the New Order, employing the discourse theory offered by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe in their Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (2001 [1985]). Its main argument is that welfare is an “empty signifier”, the meaning of which may shift or change as a consequence of the unfinished discursive contestations of various subject positions. This article identifies four central discourses, or master signifiers, between 1998 and 2015 that serve as “nodal points” in the hegemonisation of welfare: "Social Safety Net", "Creative Innovation" versus "Electoral Strategy", "Sustainable Development", and "Right of the People and Constitutional Obligation of the State". The dominant and hegemonic meaning of welfare, understood here as a “nodal point”, is only temporary; it is partially fixed, while at the same time experiencing ongoing discursive contestation. It is, is being, and will be subjected to unending dislocation.

Cuba, agriculture and socialist renewal

This paper aims to analyse the trajectory and dynamics of Cuban agriculture since the Revolution. It examines the main challenges, divergences and contradictions of its socialist strategy in the agrarian sector, stressing the limits of the industrial and agricultural models and the forces of production inherited from the capitalist world. For this purpose, I examine changes and continuities in terms of land management, crop production, the technological model and agricultural policy. Finally, I look at Cuban agriculture transformations in the 1990s from a social and solidarity economy perspective, signalling their contributions to the renewal of Cuban socialism.

“Class Struggle is Not a Game”: Daniel Bensaïd’s Relational Conception of Class.

While Daniel Bensaïd’s writings on Marxism, socialist strategy, and historical temporality have gained increased attention in the years since his passing, there remain relatively few accounts of his thinking on class. This article seeks to correct that gap by situating Bensaïd’s various texts on class theory in relation to other key reconceptualizations of class in the Marxist tradition that sought to avoid sociological determinism: E. P. Thompson’s lens of class formation and the Italian Workerists’ methodology of class composition. In tracing these connections, we argue that Bensaïd’s conception of class is at once historically grounded and attuned to the open-ended conflictuality and multiple terrains of class struggle.

A política como conflito: a noção de antagonismo na teoria de Ernesto Laclau

O artigo tem por objetivo apresentar as dimensões que a noção de antagonismo possui na teoria do discurso de Ernesto Laclau e Chantal Mouffe. Sabendo que os autores constroem um amplo aparato analítico e conceitual consubstanciado no conflito como inerente à política, o artigo visa compreender como os autores concebem a noção de antagonismo e qual a sua relevância teórica. Para atingir tal fim, adota-se como metodologia a análise bibliográfica, especificamente das obras Hegemonia e Estratégia Socialista: por uma política democrática radical, Novas Reflexões sobre a Revolução de Nosso Tempo, A Razão Populista, Fundamentos Retóricos da Sociedade e de alguns comentadores. Os resultados mostram que o antagonismo se mostra pelo caráter relacional dos processos de identificação dos discursos na ordem do social e vincula-se à contingência e à precariedade do discurso hegemônico.

"Who generates this city"? Socialist strategy in contemporary London.

This essay, based on a “militant ethnography” of the attempts of the small radical grassroots activist group, Our London (a pseudonym), to mobilize a collective oppositional politics through activities around an election campaign, engages critically with E. Laclau and C. Mouffe's arguments on discourse and collectivity in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (London: Verso, 1985). I argue, on the basis of my findings, that while their model does provide insights that help describe the process of building collectivity from among disparate perspectives and identities, we need to go beyond a focus on discourse alone and consider the ways politics is shaped by material contexts. This is necessary if we are to understand the continued appeal of class politics as well as the difficulties in mobilizing collectivity in highly unequal and fragmented cities. From an activist perspective, the essay also highlights how developing a conception of collective interests and a critique of overarching systems of exploitation can be important in building political unity.

Metáfora tópica y prácticas sociales: hacia una crítica de la práctica articulatoria de Laclau

En el presente trabajo especificamos el tratamiento que Ernesto Laclau y Chantal Mouffe ofrecen del concepto práctica articulatoria en Hegemonía y Estrategia Socialista a partir de una relectura de la tópica marxista. Para esto, partimos de que la contradicción señalada en Hegemonía y Estrategia Socialista entre la determinación en última instancia y el concepto de sobredeterminación se presenta en el momento en el cual se identifica práctica articulatoria con articulación discursiva. En este sentido, pretendemos insertar el concepto de práctica en la metáfora tópica, siguiendo la formulación propuesta por Louis Althusser. Se ha señalado reiteradamente que el abandono de Laclau y Mouffe de la tradición marxista implica una concepción que reduce lo social al discurso. En este trabajo nos interesa explorar la hipótesis según la cual este movimiento lleva implícita una salida de la tópica en la cual una práctica tiene primacía sobre del conjunto de las prácticas sociales.

Radical left parties, counter-hegemony and the EU

This essay considers the levels of support, the ideological-political spectrum and the electoral possibilities for European radical left parties, with reference to the social and political context of the 2019 European elections. At EU Parliament level this is mainly expressed through the United European Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group. Reviewing the contours of the elections, the aim is to invite reflection on the short-term conjuncture and its effects on the radical left (e.g. the effects of Brexit, the rise in importance of environmental issues, the defeat of Syriza), but also to historicise the dynamics internal to this political grouping. More long-term structural issues include both systemic mechanisms and the variation in national circumstances, both of which necessarily delimit socialist strategy. The overarching question concerns the prospects for establishing an EU-wide counter-hegemony from the left.

Politicising Government Engagement with Corporate Social Responsibility: \u201cCSR\u201d as an Empty Signifier

Governments are widely viewed by academics and practitioners (and society more generally) as the key societal actors who are capable of compelling businesses to practice corporate social responsibility (CSR). Arguably, such government involvement could be seen as a technocratic device for encouraging ethical business behaviour. In this paper, we offer a more politicised interpretation of government engagement with CSR where “CSR” is not a desired form of business conduct but an element of discourse that governments can deploy in structuring their relationships with other social actors. We build our argument through a historical analysis of government CSR discourse in the Russian Federation. Laclau and Mouffe's (Hegemony and socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics,Verso Books, London, 1985) social theory of hegemony underpins our research. We find that “CSR” in the Russian government’s discourse served to legitimise its power over large businesses. Using this case, we contribute to wider academic debates by providing fresh empirical evidence that allows the development of critical evaluation tools in relation to governments’ engagement with “CSR”. We find that governments are capable of hijacking CSR for their own self-interested gain. We close the paper by reflecting on the merit of exploring the case of the Russian Federation. As a “non-core”, non-western exemplar, it provides a useful “mirror” with which to reflect on the more widely used test-bed of Western industrial democracies when scrutinising CSR. Based on our findings, we invite other scholars to adopt a more critical, politicised stance when researching the role of governments in relation to CSR in other parts of the world.

Marxist Political Theory, Diversity of Tactics, and the Doctrine of the Long Civil War

ABSTRACTIn The Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels “openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.” However, by 1872, Marx suggested that in some countries it was possible for workers to “achieve their aims by peaceful means.” Since that time, Marxist political theorists have debated whether a transition to socialism can be achieved by parliamentary means alone or whether the transition to socialism requires the use of illegal or even violent tactics. This paper argues that with the resurgence of a socialist movement in the US, the question of tactics is once again an open debate. For this reason, it is useful to revisit the tactical debates of the Second International, because they are directly relevant to contemporary discussions of socialist strategy and tactics in the US, where tactical positions already run the gamut from parliamentarism to armed self-defense.

Linguagem e Hegemonia na Filosofia Marxiana

Nos estudos marxianos comtem-porâneos é preciso verificar alguns valores clássicos desenvolvidos com relação à filosofia da linguagem. O intuito deste artigo é discutir as vertentes contem-porâneas do marxismo partindo da sua relação com a linguagem. Para isso, nos utilizaremos da obra clássica de Bakhtin Marxismo e Filosofia da Linguagem, recons-truindo o caminho traçado por ele ao relacionar linguagem e ideologia. Por fim, pretendemos adentrar os estudos sobre pós-marxismo centrados na questão da hegemonia e do poder na obra Hegemonia e Estratégia Socialista, de Ernesto Laclau e Chantal Mouffe. A partir desse debate pretendemos apresentar em que consiste o conceito de hegemonia dos autores e seu vínculo com a filosofia da linguagem.