Hegemony and Socialist Strategy
Encyclopedia
Written in English
in 1985 by Ernesto Laclau
and Chantal Mouffe
, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy is a work of political theory in the post-Marxist
tradition. Developing several sharp divergences from the tenets of canonical Marxist thought, the authors begin by tracing historically varied discursive
constitutions of class
, political identity, and social self-understanding, and then tie these to the contemporary importance of hegemony
as a destabilized analytic
which avoids the traps of various procedures Mouffe and Laclau feel constitute a foundational flaw in Marxist thought: essentializations of class identity, the use of a priori interpretative paradigms with respect to history and contextualization, the privileging of the base/superstructure
binary above other explicative models.
, albeit with much more of an eye to disputation and intervention than traditional intellectual history employs. Specifically, Chapter 1 discusses the work of Rosa Luxemburg
, Karl Kautsky
, Eduard Bernstein
, and Georges Sorel
(among other texts by major thinkers in the Marxist tradition). Chapter 2's discussion of Gramsci
's conception of cultural hegemony
is followed by Chapter 3's more politicized development of Laclau and Mouffe's own arguments regarding hegemony's character and constitution. Finally, the fourth chapter argues for the relevance of hegemony as an analytic
for the understanding and governance of contemporary politics, political engagement, and self-understanding on the Left
.
1. Hegemony: The Genealogy of a Concept
2. Hegemony: The Difficult Emergence of a New Political Logic
3. Beyond the Positivity of the Social: Antagonisms and Hegemony
4. Hegemony and Radical Democracy
cited Hegemony and Socialist Strategy as a work having had an impact on his book, The Sublime Object of Ideology. Furthermore, its resolutely "post-Marxist" self-definition marks it as one of the first major texts associated with this disciplinary development.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
in 1985 by Ernesto Laclau
Ernesto Laclau
Ernesto Laclau is an Argentine political theorist often described as post-Marxist.He studied History in Buenos Aires, graduating from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires in 1964, and received a PhD from Essex University in 1977.Since the 1970s he has been Professor of Political Theory at the...
and Chantal Mouffe
Chantal Mouffe
Chantal Mouffe is a Belgian political theorist.-Work:Chantal Mouffe studied at Louvain, Paris and Essex and has worked in many universities throughout the world . She has also held visiting positions at Harvard, Cornell, Princeton and the CNRS...
, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy is a work of political theory in the post-Marxist
Post-Marxism
Post-Marxism has two related, but different uses: the socio-economic circumstances of Eastern Europe, especially in the ex-soviet republics after the Soviet Union's end; and the extrapolations of the philosophers and social theorists basing their postulations upon Karl Marx's writings and Marxism...
tradition. Developing several sharp divergences from the tenets of canonical Marxist thought, the authors begin by tracing historically varied discursive
Discourse
Discourse generally refers to "written or spoken communication". The following are three more specific definitions:...
constitutions of class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
, political identity, and social self-understanding, and then tie these to the contemporary importance of hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
as a destabilized analytic
Analytic induction
Analytic induction refers to a systematic examination of similarities between various social phenomena in order to develop concepts or ideas. Social scientists doing social research use analytic induction to search for those similarities in broad categories and then develop subcategories...
which avoids the traps of various procedures Mouffe and Laclau feel constitute a foundational flaw in Marxist thought: essentializations of class identity, the use of a priori interpretative paradigms with respect to history and contextualization, the privileging of the base/superstructure
Base and superstructure
In Marxist theory, human society consists of two parts: the base and superstructure; the base comprehends the forces and relations of production — employer-employee work conditions, the technical division of labour, and property relations — into which people enter to produce the necessities and...
binary above other explicative models.
Organization
The book is divided into four chapters (~50 pages each). The first two chapters deal with conceptual developments in the manner of an intellectual historyIntellectual history
Note: this article concerns the discipline of intellectual history, and not its object, the whole span of human thought since the invention of writing. For clarifications about the latter topic, please consult the writings of the intellectual historians listed here and entries on individual...
, albeit with much more of an eye to disputation and intervention than traditional intellectual history employs. Specifically, Chapter 1 discusses the work of Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
, Karl Kautsky
Karl Kautsky
Karl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 until the coming of World War I in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of...
, Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein was a German social democratic theoretician and politician, a member of the SPD, and the founder of evolutionary socialism and revisionism.- Life :...
, and Georges Sorel
Georges Sorel
Georges Eugène Sorel was a French philosopher and theorist of revolutionary syndicalism. His notion of the power of myth in people's lives inspired Marxists and Fascists. It is, together with his defense of violence, the contribution for which he is most often remembered. Oron J...
(among other texts by major thinkers in the Marxist tradition). Chapter 2's discussion of Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist. He was a founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime...
's conception of cultural hegemony
Cultural hegemony
Cultural hegemony is the philosophic and sociological theory, by the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, that a culturally diverse society can be dominated by one social class, by manipulating the societal culture so that its ruling-class worldview is imposed as the societal norm, which then is...
is followed by Chapter 3's more politicized development of Laclau and Mouffe's own arguments regarding hegemony's character and constitution. Finally, the fourth chapter argues for the relevance of hegemony as an analytic
Analytic induction
Analytic induction refers to a systematic examination of similarities between various social phenomena in order to develop concepts or ideas. Social scientists doing social research use analytic induction to search for those similarities in broad categories and then develop subcategories...
for the understanding and governance of contemporary politics, political engagement, and self-understanding on the Left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
.
Contents
Introduction1. Hegemony: The Genealogy of a Concept
- The Dilemmas of Rosa Luxembourg
- Crisis, Degree Zero
- The First Response to the Crisis: the Formation of Marxist OrthodoxyOrthodoxyThe word orthodox, from Greek orthos + doxa , is generally used to mean the adherence to accepted norms, more specifically to creeds, especially in religion...
- The Second Response to the Crisis: Revisionism
- The Third Response to the Crisis: Revolutionary SyndicalismSyndicalismSyndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...
2. Hegemony: The Difficult Emergence of a New Political Logic
- Combined Logic and the Logic of the Contingent
- 'Class Alliances': Between Democracy and Authoritarianism
- The Gramscian Watershed
- The Last Redoubt of Essentialism: The Economy
- Facing the Consequences
3. Beyond the Positivity of the Social: Antagonisms and Hegemony
- Social Formation and Overdetermination
- Articulation and Discourse
- The Category of 'Subject'
- Antagonism and Objectivity
- Equivalence and Difference
- Hegemony
4. Hegemony and Radical Democracy
- The Democratic Revolution
- Democratic Revolution and New Antagonisms
- The Anti-Democratic Offensive
- Radical democracyRadical democracyRadical democracy as an ideology was articulated by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe in their book Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics, written in 1985. They argue that social movements which attempt to create social and political change need a strategy which...
: Alternative for a New Left
Reception
Hegemony and Socialist Strategy was greeted with positive reviews and has become a reference point in its field; for example, the interdisciplinary philosopher Slavoj ŽižekSlavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher, critical theorist working in the traditions of Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He has made contributions to political theory, film theory, and theoretical psychoanalysis....
cited Hegemony and Socialist Strategy as a work having had an impact on his book, The Sublime Object of Ideology. Furthermore, its resolutely "post-Marxist" self-definition marks it as one of the first major texts associated with this disciplinary development.