About the author
Ernesto Laclau (1935–2014) was an Argentine political theorist; Chantal Mouffe (b. 1943) is a Belgian political theorist, both long based in Britain. Their collaboration founded post-Marxist 'radical democracy'; Mouffe went on to develop 'agonistic' democratic theory and to influence left-populist movements across Europe and Latin America.
Synopsis
Drawing on Gramsci's hegemony and on poststructuralist theory, Laclau and Mouffe argue that social identities and interests are not fixed by economic position but articulated through political discourse. There is no privileged revolutionary subject; instead, a 'chain of equivalence' can link diverse struggles into a counter-hegemonic bloc. They propose a 'radical and plural democracy' that deepens liberal-democratic values rather than discarding them.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workLaclau and Mouffe argue that political identities are not given by economic class but constructed through discourse and hegemonic struggle — so the left's task is to link diverse democratic demands into a shared project.
By severing politics from economic determinism, the authors reconceived left strategy around the construction of alliances among many movements rather than the primacy of the proletariat. 'Radical democracy' became a major framework for the contemporary left and its populist variants.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with orthodox Marxists who accuse the authors of abandoning materialism and class for an idealist politics of discourse, and with liberals who doubt that 'radical democracy' and endless contestation can sustain stable institutions.
Reading note
Theoretically dense and poststructuralist in idiom; read it with a guide. It is the key text for understanding post-Marxism, radical democracy, and the theory behind much of today's left populism.
Best paired with
Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks; Jan-Werner Müller, What Is Populism?