Download Hope, Passion, Politics

New Philosophies for Change
Dr. Mary Zournazi
Senior Lecturer
School of Social Sciences
The University of New South Wales
Hope, Passion, Politics
Ernesto Laclau (1935 – 2014): Argentine political theorist
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Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory
Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (with Chantal Mouffe)
Emancipation(s)
Contingency, Hegemony, Universality (with Judith Butler and Slavoj
Žižek)
On Populist Reason
The Rhetorical Foundations of Society"
Chantal Mouffe (1943-): Belgian political theorist
Essex School of discourse analysis (Gramsci, post-structuralism and identity
theories) to redefine Left politics in terms of radical democracy.
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Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (with Ernesto Laclau)
The Return of the Political.
The Democratic Paradox
On the Political. Abingdon
Agonistics: Thinking The World Politically
Hope for everyone
View
Current
Future
Implication
Pessimistic
Bad
can only go
worse
no better future
Optimistic
Good
cannot be any
better
no better future
Empty Terms
Vague
The meaning of Empty Terms
Variable
Unspecified
Non-existent
Geography
Patriotism
Equality
Governmental policies
Freedom
Ideologies
Justice
Hegemony
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) Italian Marxist philosopher
Hegemony is the set of social norms by which the ruling class impose their
world view and the social, political, and economic status quo as natural,
inevitable, and beneficial to every social class, while they are artificial
social constructs beneficial solely to the ruling class
Hegemony
Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe:
Hegemony: a political relationship of power wherein a sub-ordinate society
perform social tasks
that are culturally unnatural and not beneficial to them, but that are in exclusive benefit to the imperial
interests of the hegemon, the superior, ordinate power; hegemony is a military, political, and economic
relationship that occurs as an articulation within political discourse.
Hegemony: Articulating an empty term, such as ‘justice’, to concrete contents which can give a
precise reference in a particular context.
Hegemonic Struggle
● To universalise a principle beyond the particular
contents
● To give those particularities the role of representing a
universality transcending it.
The task of the Left
➢ To present its own aims as the global emancipatory aims of society
as a whole
➢ To provide some more global notions of emancipation
➢ To construct them around a particularised item
➢ Not to use them in terms of an ultimate fulfilment of a post-human
society
Morality
Hegemonic struggle is not a matter of rational and moral argument
Not a moral disease
Racism
Rooted in specific economic and social conditions
‘moral majority’ – the Right has a clear priority.
Class struggles
● Fight against racism and sexism, etc.
● Not lose sight of class and the socialist struggles for economic equalities
● Need a critique of the capitalist system
● The Left is in great part responsible: for not giving people hope by thinking
another alternative to the (neoliberal) capitalist system.
For example:
‘The market economy, yes. But market society, no’
Radical Democracy
A pluralist democracy
perfectly realised
No differences
everyone agree
Not pluralist
Totalitarian
Be enthusiastic about political struggle
Know there is no final goal
Know democracy is a continuous processes (‘democracy to come’)
Difficulty: Mobilisation of Passion
Identity
● The condition for identity: the ‘constitutive outside’
● The other is the condition of my identity
The identity can be constructed in opposition to the
other
Abuse of hope
Religious fundamentalism
Right-wing movements