ABSTRACT
In what follows, I explore the importance of understanding political concepts and the different methods of attaching meanings to them. As I will argue, constructivism has the choice of employing a theoretical framework inspired by Jürgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action or a theoretical framework inspired by Antonio Gramsci’s political theory of hegemony. Each theory has its own perception of the political process involved in attaching meanings to political concepts. Habermas’s theory perceives attaching meaning as a dynamic and sincere decontesting that takes place through ideal speech acts and elucidates public reason. Gramsci’s theory perceives the process of attaching meaning as a hegemonic struggle to gain and maintain control over the commonsense against potential ideological adversaries. I argue that Gramsci’s theory offers a more accurate portrayal of the actual political processes and is thus more useful to constructivism than Habermas’s theory. In other words, I call for political constructivism.
