Works
Laclau's early work was influenced by Althusserian Marxism and focused on issues debated within Neo-Marxist circles in the 1970s, including the role of the state, the dynamics of capitalism beyond reductionist models, the importance of Gramsci's theory of hegemony, etc. Laclau's most important book is arguably Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, which he co-authored with Chantal Mouffe. Their thought is usually described as post-Marxist as they were both politically active in the social and student movements of the 1960s and thus tried to link new emerging political identities with a democratic socialist imaginary. They rejected Marxist economic determinism and the notion of class struggle being the only determining antagonism in society. Instead, on the basis of recognising the plurality of antagonisms operating in society, they put forward a project of "radical and plural democracy". In his more recent work and under the increasing influence of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, Laclau has returned to a topic preoccupying him from his early years, that of populism. His latest views were well reflected in an interview given to Intellectum journal in 2008.
Read more about this topic: Ernesto Laclau
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