What We Are Reading - Populism Edition (Patreon)

When I first began reading Ernesto Laclau there was something electric about the idea of populism. In 2014, it seemed as if the political forces were starting to shift and there was a need for a new synthesis of radical politics & Marxism. The urgency of the moment grew when early in my study Ernesto Laclau passed away, he would be unable to see the shifts brought into being by his and Chantal Mouffe's work. I was a believer. And I wasn't alone.

The 2010s were undoubtedly the decade of populism, and more consequential for the left, the application of Mouffe and Laclau's "Hegemony & Socialist Strategy." Both directly and indirectly applied, the attempt to create a 'chain of equivalencies' and to expand the concept of the revolutionary subject to a larger group than just the proletariat dominated left thinking and practice in recent years. 

And now we have the opportunity to reflect on its innovation and many failures. I hope to be able to work on this subject in a couple of upcoming project but for now I wanted to provide a reading list of the criticisms of Left Populism and Post-Marxism. First are two pieces in the great Damage Magazine and a follow-up in the Jacobin by Anton Jager. The first piece does a decent job of reviewing the specifics of Mouffe and Laclau, but for those who are unfamiliar with the theory I have included a piece in Verso & a video lesson on the topic. 

Lastly, I've included a longer lecture by one of my philosophy professors at university on the subject. It will provide an overview of the theories and examples to back them up. I'm including it because it highlights an important lesson that I feel we must draw from these thinkers, that these hegemonic politics do exist and are used quite successfully by the right. 

We have many questions & debates ahead, and we must learn from our successes and mistakes. 

- David Griscom 

What We Are Reading: 

I Can't Relate - Benjamin Fife & Taylor Hines, 2020  

It Might Take A While Before History Starts Again - Anton Jager, 2020  

We Bet The House On Left Populism - And Lost - Anton Jager, 2019  

Ernesto Laclau: Constructing Antagonisms - Keucheyan, 2015 

Watching: 

Mouffe & Laclau - 2018  

Farhang Erfani: Populism without People: On Ernesto Laclau's Political Philosophy 2015