For a Left Populism

by Chantal Mouffe

Overview

What is the “populist moment” and what does it mean for the left?

We are currently witnessing in Western Europe a “populist moment” that signals the crisis of neoliberal hegemony. The central axis of the political conflict will be between right- and left-wing populism. By establishing a frontier between “the people” and “the oligarchy,” a left–populist strategy could bring together the manifold struggles against subordination, oppression and discrimination.

This strategy acknowledges that democratic discourse plays a crucial role in the political imaginary of our societies. And through the construction of a collective will, mobilizing common affects in defence of equality and social justice, it will be possible to combat the xenophobic policies promoted by right-wing populism.

In redrawing political frontiers, this “populist moment” points to a “return of the political” after years of postpolitics. A return may open the way for authoritarian solutions—through regimes that weaken liberal-democratic institutions—but it could also lead to a reaffirmation and extension of democratic values

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786637581
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	07/10/2018
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
File size:	185 KB

About the Author

Chantal Mouffe is the Professor of Political Theory at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster. Her books include Gramsci and Marxist Theory, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (with Ernesto Laclau), Dimensions of Radical Democracy, The Return of the Political, The Democratic Paradox, On the Political, Agonistics, and Podemos: In the Name of the People (with Íñigo Errejón).

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 The Populist Moment 9

2 Learning from Thatcherism 25

3 Radicalizing Democracy 39

4 The Construction of a People 59

Conclusion 79

Theoretical Appendix 87

Acknowledgements 95

Index 97

Editorial Reviews

06/18/2018
Mouffe (Agonistics), a political theorist at the University of Westminster, argues in favor of leftist populism as a means to combat both elitist, neoliberal technocracy and reactionary, xenophobic versions of populism. Populism “is not an ideology,” Mouffe asserts. “It is a way of doing politics.” Drawing on such thinkers as Machiavelli, Gramsci, and her former collaborator Ernesto Laclau, and limiting her analysis to Western Europe, she begins with a strong critique of the “postpolitical” landscape dominated by the centrist, neoliberal “Third Way” ideology that arose in the wake of Thatcherism in Britain in which political debate about visions or philosophies for government was portrayed as unnecessary. Mouffe’s “radical reformism” attempts to split the difference between the ultraleft’s revolutionary break from liberal democracy and the “sterile reformism of the social liberals,” a noble effort that grows increasingly muddled; some of the more abstract, theoretical passages can be difficult to parse, and the democratic formations she seeks to launch already exist. It’s difficult to tell who this book was written for, since large swaths of the left (in Western Europe and elsewhere) either already practice what Mouffe proposes or participate in the more radical formations that she critiques. Mouffe makes solid points about the neoliberal undermining of democratic principles, but is disconcertingly alienated from real work being done on the grassroots left. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Argues in favor of leftist populism as a means to combat both elitist, neoliberal technocracy and reactionary, xenophobic versions of populism.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Influencing left parties as they enter government, from Greece to Portugal to Mexico. It is a beach-sized introduction to a major left thinker of the twenty-first century.”
—Paul Mason, Guardian (Summer Reads)

“Refreshingly bereft of the sputtering outrage and bafflement that characterizes the growing genre of liberal self-help books, Mouffe channels populism’s agonistic clarity.”
—Thea Riofrancos, n+1

“An admirable attempt to get us thinking again about what a worthwhile politics might look like, one based on notions of equality, ecology, sovereignty, solidarity and social justice.”
—Gavin Jacobson, New Statesman

From the Publisher