BEYOND LIBERAL DISCOURSE: META-IDEOLOGICAL HEGEMONY AND NARRATIVE ALTERNATIVES by BRUNO ANILI A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Political Science and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2010 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Bruno Anili Title: Beyond Liberal Discourse: Meta-Ideological Hegemony and Narrative Alternatives This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Political Science by: Deborah Baumgold Co-Chair Leonard Feldman Co-Chair Dennis Galvan Member Craig Parsons Member Massimo Lollini Outside Member and Richard Linton Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies/Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded December 2010 ii © 2010 Bruno Anili iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Bruno Anili Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science December 2010 Title: Beyond Liberal Discourse: Meta-Ideological Hegemony and Narrative Alternatives Approved: _______________________________________________ Deborah Baumgold, Co-Chair Approved: _______________________________________________ Leonard Feldman, Co-Chair This project presents a critical engagement with the concept of ideology. It advances the view that political ideologies can be regarded as distinctive narrative styles and as such can be analyzed in their peculiar discursive formations. It specifically concentrates on liberalism, which I regard as the dominant ideology in much of “the West” today. My study contributes to the scholarship at the intersection between contemporary political theory, theories of language, and comparative politics. By employing simple instruments of semiotics I show how the discourse of liberalism organizes the production and deployment of political meaning. In particular, I argue that a critical engagement with the texts of thinkers ranging from John Locke to John Stuart Mill and John Rawls can contribute to unveiling the deep structures of liberal discourse. I maintain that these structures constitute liberalism as a “grammar” which operates by organizing political content around key concepts like individual agency, rationality, and anthropocentrism. Crucially, liberalism also acts as a “meta-ideology” capable of expressing alternative positions through its versatile grammatical infrastructure. I analyze contemporary theorists like Will Kymlicka, Robert Putnam, and Philip Pettit, and iv argue that they engage in similar intellectual projects, incorporating elements of communitarianism and republicanism in a liberal framework. In the second part of my dissertation I inquire into the possibility of alternative meta-ideological constellations. In particular, I focus on the contribution of Jean-Luc Nancy: I argue that his characterization of “being-in-common” as the fundamental position of existence can replace the liberal tenet of individualism as the basic assumption on human nature. Finally, I ground these abstract reflections in the concrete reality of the community of Badolato, in southern Italy, where locals and immigrants alike seem to understand and organize their relationality outside of a paradigm of liberal toleration. I present the results of the ethnographic research that I conducted in Badolato and I characterize that experience of encounter with the other as an example of the practices of hospitality envisioned by the late Jacques Derrida. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Bruno Anili GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Università degli Studi di Siena, Siena, Italy DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Political Science, 2010, University of Oregon Laurea in Scienze della Comunicazione, 2001, Università degli Studi di Siena AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Political Theory Comparative Politics PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Visiting Assistant Professor, Susquehanna University, August 2010-August 2011 Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, September 2002-July2010 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Charles A. Reed Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2006-2007 PUBLICATIONS: Bruno Anili, “Unstable Relocations: Meeting the Other in Kurdolato,” in Practicing Anthropology, Vol. 31, No. 2, Spring 2009, pp. 24-29 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is not without some hesitation that I set forth to express my gratitude to all who have contributed over the years to the thoughts that I present here in this project. Giving thanks might be misinterpreted as the vain attempt on my part to extinguish the debt that I owe them. Because I regard myself as merely the point of exposure of the relations that have constituted throughout my existence, and that continue to construct me and deconstruct me, I would not be able to list here all those who have been involved in these relations, and those who have been involved in their relations. I would have to start with my loving parents Nino and Maria as well my gracious sisters Francesca and Brunella and their beautiful families, for who I am today truly depends on them in the most intimate of ways. Similarly, I could not omit mentioning my grandma Carmela, from whom I learned the value of a stubborn determination; my late grandma Nini’, from whom I learned the pleasure of the sound of language; my late great-aunt Mata, whose tales so vividly impressed my young imagination; my late grandpa Bruno, whose gentle smile I hope to have inherited along with the name; and my late grandpa Guido, whom I unfortunately never met in person. I would then also open my heart to my childhood friends Francesco, Andrea and Gianfranco, whose enduring friendship I count among my blessings. Nor would have this project been even thinkable for me, had it not been for the felicitous encounter with so many talented and passionate educators throughout my life, from my rigorous elementary school teacher Giunchiglia Veltri to my kind middle school teacher Scolastica De Lucro; from my caring high school teacher Annamaria Sillato to my brilliant college professor and undergraduate thesis advisor Dr. Maurizio Franzini. At the University of Oregon, then, I found myself immersed in an outstandingly stimulating intellectual community, in which I was so lucky as to be able to exchange ideas vii with, and draw inspiration from amazing colleagues like Courtney Smith, Tamas Golya, Sean Parson, Jenny Hehnke, Ryan Smith, Ed Taylor, Clint Smith, Jason Gettel, Adrienne Van der Valk, Leif Hoffman, Dylan Bennett, Max Brown, Forrest Nabors, Dan Andersen, Greg Liggett, Sam Bernofsky, Clayton Cleveland, Kelley Littlepaige and many others. From my professors, including Dr. Leonard Feldman, Dr. Deborah Baumgold, Dr. Dennis Galvan, Dr. Craig Parson and Dr. Massimo Lollini I have received unwavering and patient guidance and support; the example of their academic excellence has both humbled and motivated me in the pursuit of my scholarship, and I strive to return a fraction of what I have learned from them to my students. Finally, at Susquehanna University I have been welcomed warmly by my new colleagues and students, and without their encouragement I would have not been able to complete this project. More than anybody else, my partner Anna Giannetti has shown me love, graciousness, patience, encouragement and intellectual stimulation throughout the many phases of my work on this project. Along with the many other wonderful people that I have met in my life, I consider myself especially lucky to have met her. I could never do justice to my indebtedness to each and every one of the persons with whom I have significantly interacted throughout the years by simply expressing my sincere gratitude to them. What I am, what I think and what I write is the imperfect reflection of what from them and with them I have learned to write, to think and to be. viii To my loving parents Nino and Maria. And to the memory of my first friend Giuseppe Bilotti: there is no good reason in the world for why I am here today and he is not. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. A PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION TO IDEOLOGY .......................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 Ideas in Action: Toward a Definition of Ideology ........................................................... 11 Ideology: Semantic, Not Apophantic ................................................................................. 18 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................ 32 II. THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF SEMIOTICS TO THE STUDY OF IDEOLOGY ....................................................................................................................... 36 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 36 Taking Meaning and Making It Stick: Abduction and Overcoding ............................... 42 Rethinking Agency Beyond Individual Agents: The Actantial Model ........................... 47 Mapping Narrative Tensions: The Semiotic Square ......................................................... 58 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................ 60 III. A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE IDEOLOGY OF LIBERALISM ......................