Where Are Jacques and Ernesto When You Need Them? Rancière and Laclau on Populism, Experts and Contingency
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Description
The response of academic intellectuals and political elites to populism is very often characterized by a mixture between outright disgust and helpless perplexity. This cannot come as a surprise, since the one thing that left and right populism have in common is that they consider the elites their enemy. The essay argues that the choice the elites have is either to openly voice their contempt for the uneducated masses, or to help educate them. However, as the contributions of Ernesto Laclau and Jacques Ranci`ere on the topic show, this is more easily said than done.
Moreover, to simply discard right-wing populism on the basis of its racist endencies often simply serves to deflect the focus away from the legitimate grievances of those who follow – or ‘fall for’ – populist parties.
Moreover, to simply discard right-wing populism on the basis of its racist endencies often simply serves to deflect the focus away from the legitimate grievances of those who follow – or ‘fall for’ – populist parties.
Date of Publication
2019-10-25
Publication Type
Article
Language(s)
en
Series
Philosophy & social criticism
Publisher
Sage
ISSN
0191-4537
Access(Rights)
metadata.only