Ernesto Laclau
Why Constructing a People Is the Main Task of Radical Politics
I have been rather surprised by Slavoj Zizek's critique of my book On Populist Reason (see Slavoj Zizek, "Against the Populist Temptation," Critical Inquiry 32 [Spring 2006]: 551–74).1 Given that the latter is strongly critical of Zizek's approach, I was expecting, of course, some reaction on his part. He has chosen for his reply, however, a rather indirect and oblique road; he does not answer a single of my criticisms of his work and formulates, instead, a series of objections to my book that only make sense if one fully accepts his theoretical perspective—which is, precisely, what I had questioned. To avoid continuing with this dialogue of the deaf I will take the bull by the horns, reasserting what I see as fundamentally wrong in Zizek's approach and, in the course of this argument, I will refute also Zizek's criticisms.
1. See Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason (London, 2005).
ERNESTO LACLAU is professor of politics at the University of Essex and Distinguished Professor of Humanities and Rhetorical Studies at Northwestern University. He is the author of Politics and Ideology of Our Time (1977), New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time (1990), and Emancipation(s) (1996) and coauthor with Chantal Mouffe of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy and with Slavoj Zizek and Judith Butler of Contingency, Hegemony, and Universality (2000). His most recent book is On Populist Reason (2005).
