Politics and ideology in Marxist theory: Capitalism, fascism, populism

by Ernesto Laclau

English, French (translation)

Genres: Philosophy, Theory, Politics, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Ernesto Laclau was an Argentine political theorist often described as post-Marxist. He was a professor at the University of Essex where he holds a chair in Political Theory and was for many years director of the doctoral Programme in Ideology and Discourse Analysis. He has lectured extensively in many universities in North America, South America, Western Europe, Australia, and South Africa.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely dense and quite reliant on a familiarity with texts referenced in each essay, notwithstanding a better-than-general understanding of Marxism and history as it relates to Marx and his writings. I find myself unable/unwilling to over-engage with theoretical works that provide few, if any, rela world examples or explanations. I am rather intelligent so that is not the issue for me. My concern is that over-stressing theory and concept makes it hard for me to care all that much about the academic wranglings. I love a good debate, argument, discussion, and even engage in random acts of mindless navel-gazing about smarty stuff, but when a book reads like a Deep Thinker's Circle Jerk it comes across - pun intended, ha! - as quite useless or inapplicable to actual problems for actual people. Still, I like reading books like this, even if this one offered only a few insights amidst all the multi-syllabics and near self-referential footnote-ing. Not for the casual reader, not at all.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, Laclau is one of the most underrated philosophers of his generation. He is criminally ignored- unlike Zizek, Badiou, Hardt and Negri- in terms of legacy in forming the modern radical left. However, even though I'm a huge follower of his work, this is not his strongest. It neither stands as a great entry point ("Emancipations" is possibly the best introduction to his ideas I've read) nor any kind of magnum opus like "Hegemony and Socialist Strategy". Instead it hangs as a collection of relatively interesting but not mind-blowing essays on issues that are better explored elsewhere. It does contain some interesting insights into traditional and neo-Marxist failures to explain everything in terms of economic essentialism, but certainly doesn't back the punch of his other works. One for completists or people who may be writing reports on the specific topics covered in the book. There are better Laclau works elsewhere.

[Sotiris Sotiriou · Rating 2 out of 5]

Author struggle to bring anything new to the table. It feels like reading a social media post filled with buzzwords but instead of newspeak he uses references to other philosophers. But he fails even in delivering ideas of someone else. It's dense and in some parts just unpleasant to read, he just assumes that reader knows what he mean without any further explanation. I struggle to find anything positive to say about it, yet still I can't really hate it. I just can't really understand who is the target of this book.

tldr; I guess I should just read one of the philosophers that he refers to.

[Devon · Rating 2 out of 5]

definitely had some interesting parts and good analysis, but as a whole it was a slog

[Peter Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this short book reading Stuart Hall's "Hard Road to Renewal" as part of my reading around the subject of hegemony (see https://marxadventure.wordpress.com/2...). As Hall suggests this book sets out a development of Gramsci's work on hegemony to create a Marxist theory of politics and political ideology. This earlier book by Laclau doesn't go as far as the later Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (with Chantal Mouffe) in separating political theory from the influence of class, and is all the better for it. While cast as an analysis of fascism with a particular Latin American emphasis through Peronism the theory developed here feels widely applicable with the articulation of a separation between the antagonisms created by class conflict and those unrelated to class but which can be articulated with it to create the sort of historic blocs that Gramsci theorised.

As a development and systematisation of Gramsci's work this is hugely interesting and is by no means superseded by the later and better known Hegemony and Socialist Strategy.

[Rolip Saptamaji · Rating 4 out of 5]

buku ini sangat baik dibaca sebagai pengantar pada kajian post-marxis terutama jika tertarik untuk membahas pemikiran Lacalau. dalam buku ini ia (Laclau) membedakan ideologi-ideologi kontemporer dalam kacamata marxis yang masih klasik namun dari buku ini pula dapat terlihat upayanya untuk menemukan teoritisasi yang tepat mengenai populisme yang sudah menggejala sejak abad 20. Laclau mengambil objeknya pada amerika latin. dalam buku ini kasus yang sering ia ungkapkan adalah peronisme argentina yang kemudian ia perbandingkan dengan negara lainnya. buku ini menunjukkan bahwa sejak awal pemikiran laclau tidaklah mengarah pada pembentukan satu teori mengenai populisme atau menemukan bentuk populisme itu sendiri melainkan ingin menjelaskan populisme sebagai entitas politik.

[Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

La teoría populista en ciernes. Ecléctico, complejo, heterodoxo. Casi todo lo que vino después ya estaba ahí en forma de reflexión, de horizonte o de intuición. Laclau, un militante peronista/socialista que quiso que ganáramos.

[Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting as a theoretical analysis of the debates in question, but not particularly engaging by itself. Useful for a political science student interested in the topic of Marxist political theory but it won't blow your socks off otherwise.