The Creation of the ‘People’ in Laclau’s Theory of Populism: a critical assessment
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2017 |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
Texto Completo: | http://hdl.handle.net/1822/48052 |
Resumo: | Defining populism as a political articulation, rather than a specific ideology, Laclau has been one of the first scholars to show why the form and content of this phenomenon are strictly related. According to him, stylistic features such as vague, polarising and strong emotive discourse are not merely epiphenomenal elements of populism, which prove the irrationality of its ideology. They are constitutive elements of populism as they are necessary to create and maintain the division of society into two antagonistic blocs. Laclau’s theory of populism, however, has also been criticised for implicitly endorsing an authoritarian view of power. In this paper I argue that to better identify the source of the democratic deficit in such theory, we need to explore the combination of form and content it endorses. In order to do this I analyse Laclau’s account of the articulatory practices of populism, focusing on their rhetorical character in particular. My argument is that this account is democratically problematic, since being based on a merely formal understanding of rhetoric, inevitably reduces the rhetorical dimension of these practices to an instrumental and thus potentially manipulative logic. This logic presupposes and promotes a homogenised, passive, and unreflective idea of the ‘people’. |
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The Creation of the ‘People’ in Laclau’s Theory of Populism: a critical assessmentLaclauPopulismRhetoricDeliberationDemocracyLeadershipCiências Sociais::Ciências PolíticasSocial SciencesArts & HumanitiesDefining populism as a political articulation, rather than a specific ideology, Laclau has been one of the first scholars to show why the form and content of this phenomenon are strictly related. According to him, stylistic features such as vague, polarising and strong emotive discourse are not merely epiphenomenal elements of populism, which prove the irrationality of its ideology. They are constitutive elements of populism as they are necessary to create and maintain the division of society into two antagonistic blocs. Laclau’s theory of populism, however, has also been criticised for implicitly endorsing an authoritarian view of power. In this paper I argue that to better identify the source of the democratic deficit in such theory, we need to explore the combination of form and content it endorses. In order to do this I analyse Laclau’s account of the articulatory practices of populism, focusing on their rhetorical character in particular. My argument is that this account is democratically problematic, since being based on a merely formal understanding of rhetoric, inevitably reduces the rhetorical dimension of these practices to an instrumental and thus potentially manipulative logic. This logic presupposes and promotes a homogenised, passive, and unreflective idea of the ‘people’.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2019 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. The authors also acknowledge the support, through the Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (COMPETE2020) and by national funds, through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), of the POLY-PrevEnTT project (PTDC/BTM-SAL/29841/2017 POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029841).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionAcademy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Institute of PhilosophyUniversidade do MinhoBallacci, Giuseppe20172017-01-01T00:00:00Zinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1822/48052eng0015-1831info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2023-07-21T12:02:46Zoai:repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt:1822/48052Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T18:52:49.096452Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
The Creation of the ‘People’ in Laclau’s Theory of Populism: a critical assessment |
title |
The Creation of the ‘People’ in Laclau’s Theory of Populism: a critical assessment |
spellingShingle |
The Creation of the ‘People’ in Laclau’s Theory of Populism: a critical assessment Ballacci, Giuseppe Laclau Populism Rhetoric Deliberation Democracy Leadership Ciências Sociais::Ciências Políticas Social Sciences Arts & Humanities |
title_short |
The Creation of the ‘People’ in Laclau’s Theory of Populism: a critical assessment |
title_full |
The Creation of the ‘People’ in Laclau’s Theory of Populism: a critical assessment |
title_fullStr |
The Creation of the ‘People’ in Laclau’s Theory of Populism: a critical assessment |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Creation of the ‘People’ in Laclau’s Theory of Populism: a critical assessment |
title_sort |
The Creation of the ‘People’ in Laclau’s Theory of Populism: a critical assessment |
author |
Ballacci, Giuseppe |
author_facet |
Ballacci, Giuseppe |
author_role |
author |
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv |
Universidade do Minho |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Ballacci, Giuseppe |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
Laclau Populism Rhetoric Deliberation Democracy Leadership Ciências Sociais::Ciências Políticas Social Sciences Arts & Humanities |
topic |
Laclau Populism Rhetoric Deliberation Democracy Leadership Ciências Sociais::Ciências Políticas Social Sciences Arts & Humanities |
description |
Defining populism as a political articulation, rather than a specific ideology, Laclau has been one of the first scholars to show why the form and content of this phenomenon are strictly related. According to him, stylistic features such as vague, polarising and strong emotive discourse are not merely epiphenomenal elements of populism, which prove the irrationality of its ideology. They are constitutive elements of populism as they are necessary to create and maintain the division of society into two antagonistic blocs. Laclau’s theory of populism, however, has also been criticised for implicitly endorsing an authoritarian view of power. In this paper I argue that to better identify the source of the democratic deficit in such theory, we need to explore the combination of form and content it endorses. In order to do this I analyse Laclau’s account of the articulatory practices of populism, focusing on their rhetorical character in particular. My argument is that this account is democratically problematic, since being based on a merely formal understanding of rhetoric, inevitably reduces the rhetorical dimension of these practices to an instrumental and thus potentially manipulative logic. This logic presupposes and promotes a homogenised, passive, and unreflective idea of the ‘people’. |
publishDate |
2017 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2017 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z |
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
http://hdl.handle.net/1822/48052 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1822/48052 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
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eng |
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0015-1831 |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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openAccess |
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application/pdf |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Institute of Philosophy |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Institute of Philosophy |
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Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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RCAAP |
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RCAAP |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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