Ideology and the critique of ideology in Ernesto Laclau ́s thinking

Abstract

In the branch of classical Marxism, the notion of ideology has been understood in terms of false consciousness, misrepresentation or distortion. This way of interpreting the specificity of ideology is based on the assumption that something is true or undistorted. In other words, the understanding of ideology has been inscribed in the realm of the extra ideological, and, thus, within human reach. Ernesto Laclau’s perspective has questioned the essentialist assumptions that formed the basis for the classic approach to ideology. However, his interrogation of ideology does not imply the abandonment of the concept in question, let alone the abolition of a critique of ideology. Rather, its reformulation based on different presuppositions reveals the marks of post-strucutralist thought. Drawing from Laclau’s critique, in this article I analyze this new way of conceptualizing the deconstructions of ideology while investigating the ontological assumptions that are the basis of that approach.