Laclau and Mouffe on the Radical Democratic Imaginary
* - Book: Laclau and Mouffe. The Radical Democratic Imaginary. By Anne Marie Smith. Routledge, 1998
Description
Michel Bauwens, book notes 2004:
-This book is an analysis and defense of the political theory , considered 'post-Marxist', as espoused by Laclau and Mouffe, the authors of 'Hegemony and Socialist Strategy", written in 1985. It was an attempt to come to terms with the ascendancy of Reagan-Thatcher, but also of various new social movements and 'identity politics'.
Laclau and Mouffe decried the obscolescence of classic socialist discourse, for 3 essential reasons:
- 1. the ontological centrality of the workers - 2. the Revolution as key transitional movement - 3. the existence of a unitary will after the Revolution
Their critique was rooted in the following strands of political theory
- Gramscian socialism - liberal-democratic discourse on rights and citizenship - post-structuralism - 'post-analytic' philosophers ? - phenomenology - Lacanian psycho-analysis
The radical-democratic imaginary refers to Tocqueville's insight that once equality is discovered in the political sphere, it automatically, over time, seeks to be extended to every other sphere.
- Tocqueville: "It is not possible to conceive of men as eternally unequal amongst themselves, on one point, and equal on others; at a certain moment, they will come to be equal on all points" (p. 155)
L/M argue for a strategy based on fully extending the potential of democracy (radical democratic pluralism), and in particular, the discourse on rights, the latter is seen as a key to 'recognition'. They distinguish between the relations of subordination, which can be seen as legitimate, and relations of oppression, where subordination is seen as blocking the emancipation of identity, and the whole structure of subordination is therefore challenged.
What has to be retrieved are the democratic moments in liberal theory (the equal legal rights, not capitalist exploitation), and in socialism (but divested from its authoritarian tendencies). Mouffe asserts in this context that Macpherson became a key figure in contemporary political theory, precisely through his work on the radical potential of liberal democracy He is seen as part of the 'retrieval' tradition, which attempts to combine insights of both the liberal-democratic and the socialist traditions. (Retrieval means that Locke's theory of the consent of the people can be retained, while his Eurocentric views on native peoples can be rejected).