ABSTRACT

This chapter introduces and evaluates the post-Marxist strand of interpretive political science. I shall focus initially on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s classic statement of the approach, which is set out in the pages of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (1985), and then consider some of Laclau’s later writings, as well as endeavours to develop the emergent paradigm (Glynos and Howarth 2007; Laclau 1990, 2005). 1 I shall also discuss the highly influential critique of their work developed by Slavoj Źiźek, who has articulated a more Hegelian- and Lacanian-inflected rendition of the contemporary Marxist problematic. The first part of the chapter explores the connections between post-Marxism and post-structuralism, while providing working definitions of each. Set against the torsions of classical Marxism, I then examine the emergence and development of post-Marxism. Having elucidated its core concepts and logics, I also present a number of criticisms and alleged deficits of this approach. In conclusion, I consider some of their and other responses to such challenges.