From Authoritarian to Left Populism

Reframing Debates

Bibliographic Data

ID4789166
AuthorsGillian Hart (0000-0002-3062-1321, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume118
Issue2
Pages307-323
Publication date2019-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth Atlantic Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-2876 • E-ISSN: 1527-8026
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00382876-7381158
OpenAlexW2939711891
LanguageEN
Citations received32
References cited16

Two themes loom large in burgeoning discussions and debates over populism: (1) growing deployments of “authoritarian populism” by the liberal establishment as a means of discrediting populist politics from both the Left and the Right, and (2) vigorous advocacy of left populism to counter virulent, racist, right-wing populisms in many regions of the world today. The most influential proponent of left populism is Chantal Mouffe, drawing on her post-Marxist work on radical democracy with the late Ernesto Laclau in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (1985). In this essay, I engage critically with both tendencies and seek to chart a different approach by bringing my earlier work on populist politics in South Africa into conversation with two other recent Marxist analyses. We all start with Laclau’s (1977) groundbreaking essay on populism, but then move on from it in different although potentially complementary ways. At the core of this essay are the political stakes of how we think about populist politics

Authoritarianism · Cognitive reframing · Democracy · Hegemony · Marxist philosophy · Media studies · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Sociology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Political Economy and Marxism · Populism, Right-Wing Movements

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