Hegemony Discourse And Political Strategy

Hegemony, Discourse, and Political Strategy revisits a question that has long fascinated socialists, progressives, democrats, Greens, and Marxists – how do left-wing forces win at politics? Thirty-five years ago, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe tackled this puzzle in ground-breaking fashion, by drawing on a signature blend of linguistics, Marxist theory, and poststructuralism that came to be known as post-Marxist Discourse Theory (PDT). This book takes up the legacy of Laclau and Mouffe, and elaborates PDT into a full-fledged theory of political strategy for the first time. It argues that post-Marxism provides the foundations for a form of discourse analysis that can explain how political strategies play out as well as why they fail or succeed. Its empirical potential to illuminate the dynamics of hegemonic struggles is demonstrated through a case study focusing on the contestation and politicization of EU trade policy in the European Parliament.

In this hugely influential book, Laclau and Mouffe examine the workings of hegemony and contemporary social struggles, and their significance for democratic theory. With the emergence of new social and political identities, and the frequent attacks on Left theory for its essentialist underpinnings, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy remains as relevant as ever, positing a much-needed antidote against ‘Third Way’ attempts to overcome the antagonism between Left and Right.

To what extent does it call into the question the idea of social totality that underpinned Marxism and many other socialist theories? Does the concept of hegemony imply a new logic that goes beyond the essentialism of classical Marxist thought? These are some of the questions that this now seminal book attempts to answer. It traces the genealogy of the present crisis, from the nineteenth-century debates to the contemporary emergence of new forms of struggle, making it a classic text both for understanding hegemony and for focusing on present social struggles and their significance for democratic theory.

With the help of critical discourse analysis (CDA), this book approaches Turkish politics from an interdisciplinary perspective in order to deepen our understanding of political power and discourse. This study re-conceptualizes discursive strategies as hegemonic projects and thirteen governmental speeches are analyzed accordingly. It also provides readers with a theoretical discussion on the nature of political discourse through references to deliberative, agonistic and critical realistic approaches.

How can recent developments in post-structuralist, post-Marxist, and psychoanalytical theory actually inform ongoing empirical research? What are the appropriate methods and research strategies for conducting research in discourse theory and analysis? How can concepts such as hegemony, identity, the imaginary, dislocation, and empty signifiers illuminate key aspects of contemporary society and politics? This pathbreaking and multi-focal book contains a clear introductory statement of the theoretical approach used, and concludes with an assessment of the future directions of discourse theory in the social sciences.

This book provides the first systematic examination of the relationship of hegemony and power. Nine essays delve into the diverse analytical aspects of the two concepts, and an introduction and conclusion by the editors, respectively, forge a synthesis of their theoretical coherence.

In the year after the September 11, 2001 attacks the Bush administration put together the elements of a far-reaching foreign policy doctrine based on unilateral action, pre-emptive military strikes, and prevention of the emergence of any strategic rivals to U.S. supremacy. Bush’s grand strategy was formalized in a September 17, 2002 presidential report called The National Security Strategy of the United States of America. The report argued for pre-emptive strikes against rogue states and terrorists, even if faced with international opposition, and for the maintenance of American military supremacy. Additionally the report placed the U.S. off-limits to international law, asserting that the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court "does not extend to Americans." Underlying the Bush doctrine is the notion that the U.S. must remain the unchallenged power in world affairs. "The United States possesses unprecedented – and unequaled – strength and influence in the world," the report began. Supremacy involves maintaining forces that "will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States." Many questions are raised by the trajectory of U.S. policy under George W. Bush. What is distinctive about the Bush administration’s militarism and unilateralism? What are the political, ideological, and economic roots of the turn in U.S. foreign policy under George W. Bush? In what ways has the "war on terrorism" affected politics inside the United States in terms of civil liberties, treatment of immigrants, domestic and economic policy, and political discourse more generally? The Politics of Empire examines critically these and other urgent political and analytical questions. This is a Special Issue of the Journal New Political Science