Laclau's theory of populism: a critical review

Abstract

On Populist Reason represents Laclau's most ambition attempt at delineating a general and abstract theory of populism. He hopes to move beyond the theoretical impasse on the subject that frequently led to a blind alley of conceptual ambiguity and political elusiveness regarding the political and conceptual status of the term populism and give the concept the central place it deserves within political theory. The latter involves a normative defense of populist reason as the paradigmatic expression of the grammar of politics. Laclau not only wishes to rescue the concept of populism from its marginal theoretical condition, he also aspires to placing the term at the center-stage of contemporary political theory. The chapter divides into three sections. The first focuses on the novelties that Laclau's approach to populism introduces in wider debates over the ambiguous relationship of populism with democracy. The second analyzes the democratic claims of Laclau's theory of populism. The third outlines the logic of operation of populist processes of identification. Thelast section critically reviews the main tenets of Laclau's conceptual model.