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The Political Ontology of Post-Marxism

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The Political Ontology of Post-Marxism The political ontology of post-Marxism Hélène Samanci Thesis submitted to Queen Mary, University of London, for the degree of Master of Philosophy September 2012 2 Abstract Since the 1970’s and the emergence of so-called ‘identity’ struggles, we have seen a proliferation of political theories aiming to articulate the traditional movement of the working-class with these struggles and thus provide new strategies for the left. The work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe has been central to attempts to revise traditional Marxist theories on the centrality of the worker’s movement. Influenced by the structuralism of Saussure and Lacan, and by Derrida’s critique of structuralism, they have sought to develop an alternative strategy based on a post-structuralist conception of the social world. This thesis endeavours to show how this transition between structuralism and post-structuralism has been made in the work of Laclau and Mouffe, with a particular focus on the political and strategical implications of that transition as a contribution to theorising the articulation of struggles and of identities. Secondly, it attempts to compare and confront the hegemonic strategy and the so-called post-hegemonic strategy influenced by Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophical work. Through a close examination of works within the field of radical democratic thought, and in particular through an exploration of the opposition between Ernesto Laclau’ and Lasse Thomassen’s ‘ontology of lack’ versus Andrew Robinson’ and Simon Tormey’s ‘ontology of abundance’, the thesis casts new light on the most recent debates within radical democratic currents. The philosophical debate is also completed by the analyses of the political translations of these different ontologies such as Peronism and the Zapatista movements and enriched with Toni Negri and Michael Hardt’s theory of the Multitude. The contribution of this thesis is hence to map out and clarify some of the most important problems and debates concerning the question of the ‘unity’ and ‘fragmentation’ of the oppressed, and develop some tools in order to evaluate the best strategies for emancipatory social change. 3 KEY-WORDS: Post-Marxism, Post-structuralism, Laclau, Mouffe, Deleuze, Guattari, Radical Democracy, Ontology of Lack, Ontology of Abundance, Social Movements. 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my two supervisors Madeleine Davis and Matteo Mandarini for their constant help and patient support throughout my studies. Without their detailed corrections of my work, this thesis would not have been completed. I also would like to thank James Dunkerley for being my supervisor when Madeleine was on leave. His generous advice helped me a lot during the most difficult part. Lasse Thomassen has also been a great help. He clarified my research questions and gave me the most pertinent references. 5 Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... 5 Introduction .................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER ONE Crises of Marxism I.i. Overview .................................................................................................... 18 I.ii.a. Bernstein and the autonomy of the political ........................................... 19 I.ii.b. The revisionist theses ............................................................................. 24 I.iii.a Gramsci’s theory of ideology ................................................................. 28 I.iii.b. Hegemony and class reductionism ....................................................... 31 I.iv. Althusser and the concept of overdetermination ...................................... 35 I.v.a. Laclau and Mouffe’s conception of the social field as a discursive field40 I.v.b. Laclau and Mouffe’s anti-dialectical thought ........................................ 48 CHAPTER TWO Precursors to and influences on Laclau and Mouffe’s radical democratic thought II.i. Overview ................................................................................................... 51 II.ii. Derrida’s critique of structuralism ........................................................... 52 II.iii. The Saussurean influence ........................................................................ 59 II.iv. The concept of antagonism ...................................................................... 64 II.v. The Lacanian influence ........................................................................... 68 II.vi. The post-Marxist strategy of hegemony .................................................. 77 II.vii. Concluding remarks .............................................................................. 83 CHAPTER THREE Ontology of Lack vs. Ontology of Abundance III.i. Overview .................................................................................................. 84 6 III.ii. Radical democracy and the rise of the New Social Movements ............ 86 III.iii.a. Rational consensus vs. politics of dissensus ....................................... 89 III.iii.b. The Habermasian theory of rational consensus and its critique ........ 91 III.iv.a. The Ontology of lack .......................................................................... 96 III.iv.b. The threat of psychosis and the need for order .................................. 98 III.v.a. ‘The ontology of abundance’ ............................................................. 104 III.v.b. Productivity and positivity: Deleuze and Guattari ............................. 107 III.vi. The political vocation of philosophy .................................................... 112 III.vii. Conclusion ......................................................................................... 123 CHAPTER FOUR The impact of the ontologies of Lack and Abundance for political strategy IV.i. Overview ................................................................................................ 123 IV.ii. Representational vs. post-representational politics: Populism as Politics ............................................................................................................ 125 IV.iii. A basis and an illustration: Peronism .................................................. 128 IV.iv. Populism as a political logic ............................................................... 131 IV.v. Robinson and Tormey’s counter-example and the ethical commitment to post-representational politics .......................................................................... 133 IV.vi. The Zapatist struggle vs. populism: a radical critique of power .......... 137 IV.vii. Lasse Thomassen’s interpretation of the Zapatistas’ movement ........ 145 IV.viii. Hegemony vs. exodus and desertion; an overview ........................... 150 IV.ix. Strategies of exodus and desertion and the postmodern Caesura ....... 151 IV.x. Critiques of Hardt and Negri’s concepts .............................................. 159 IV.xi. Concluding remarks ............................................................................ 163 General conclusion ................................................................................... 165 i. Overview ..................................................................................................... 165 i. The ontological question ............................................................................ 170 iii. Ethics and Politics .................................................................................... 171 iv. Two post-Marxisms? ................................................................................. 173 Bibliography ................................................................................................ 176 7 Introduction The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the genesis, development and consequences of the intellectual and political work of prominent ‘post- Marxist’ theorists, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, co-authors in 1985 of Hegemony and socialist strategy, who claim to renew leftist critical thought. The post-Marxist authors’ project takes root in the idea that the Marxist theoretical system collapsed once and for all with the Berlin Wall. Although some attempts to reconstruct Marxian and Marxist thought exist, they claim that we are presently experiencing a ‘post-Marxist’ period, following the ‘Marxist’ period of the 1960s and 1970s, which were two decades of great class struggles. For Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, classical Marxist categories such as ‘class interests’, ‘revolution’ etc., have become unsuitable for explaining the changes which have taken place in the social and political spheres of contemporary capitalist societies. Indeed, according to these authors, classical Marxist categories have become inadequate to ‘the task of understanding the radical openness of the social and the rise of new, non-class- based actors and social movements’ (Thoburn, 2007, 79). ‘Post-Marxism’ is for them a label indicating both a process of re- appropriation of the Marxist tradition (post-Marxist) and a process of going beyond this tradition (post-Marxist) (Laclau and Mouffe, 2001, 9). This necessity to go beyond traditional Marxism is the consequence of an alleged gap between today’s existing social categories and those which can be subsumed under classical Marxist categories, the latter
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