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Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 12, Nº. 1 (May-October 2021)

Mouffe, Chantal (2019). Por Um Populismo de Esquerda.

Colecção Trajectos. Lisboa: Gradiva. ISBN 978-989-616-906-0.

104 pp

1

Ph.D. student in Communication Science at ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Portugal) and

2016

The work Por Um Populismo de Esquerda (For a Left Populism) by Chantal Mouffe is part

of the long-standing neo-Marxist tradition endorsed by a vast and diverse community of

readers, ranging from Sociology to Political Science and Philosophy. For the French

author, it is clear that populism itself may not be solely and simply synonymous with

dysfunctionality and democratic pathology. What she calls the “populist moment” is

inserted in a socio-historical and cultural narrative, where different dispositions of the

side that the political and communicational moment imposes. It contributes to a left-wing

populist programme with a strong cultural anchorage, promoting the revitalization of the

political and public life of liberal democracies.

Critical Review translated by Carolina Peralta.

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 12, Nº. 1 (May-October 2021), pp. 272-277

Critical Review of Mouffe, Chantal (2019). Por Um Populismo de Esquerda.

Colecção Trajectos. Lisboa: Gradiva. ISBN 978-989-616-906-0. 104 pp

historic opportunity to transform political and social structures in favour of a left-wing

policy: the populist moment is the moment when the political and social institutions that

guide current neoliberalism must be called into question by left-wing populism. The

neoliberal hegemony that has prevailed over the past three to four decades has led to

what she calls post-politics. This period reveals itself in the growing lack of interest in

political life on the part of an increasing number of social categories.

There are two reasons for this hegemony. The first is the essentialist conception of the

political practice of a good part of the left political actors, who continue to see political

expression as the result of class configurations. The other is the consensus around TINA

(There is no alternative) embraced by social democracy under Tony Blair's government

constructed discursively through hegemonic practices.

Considering populism as a way of making politics based on discourse, the ideological

component, the programmatic one, and its institutional dimension as a political regime,

are removed.

Historically, the neoliberal hegemonic formation has followed that of the welfare state

with a social-democratic matrix. However, more recently, and in the face of growing

dissatisfaction and demand from broad social categories, the neoliberal hegemonic

formation is under pressure and erosion. Organically, this formation consists of:

deregulation; privatization; austerity; limitation of the role of the State; individualism;

and materialistic ascendant.

the power of political identification of broad social strata disaffected and removed from

the public sphere. This new linguistic code would allow the second proposed aspect, the

definition of the boundary between the “people” and the “oligarchy”. It is at this point

that the bifurcation between left-wing populism and right-wing populism occurs. The “we”

of left-wing populism should be able to articulate the interests of social groups such as

workers, the LGBTI community, immigrants and the precarious middle class.

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 12, Nº. 1 (May-October 2021), pp. 272-277

Critical Review of Mouffe, Chantal (2019). Por Um Populismo de Esquerda.

Colecção Trajectos. Lisboa: Gradiva. ISBN 978-989-616-906-0. 104 pp

legitimacy crisis was amplified by economic factors, such as the 1975 oil crisis, but also

by the contesting role of the new social movements that advocated greater individual

rights and freedoms. This historical weakness of the welfare state and the hegemony

that legitimized it were relentlessly used to erect a new hegemony, the neoliberal one.

The strategy included the construction, at the discursive level, of "us", that is, the

hardworking people, victims of bureaucrats and a "them” that encompassed the forces

of the system, state bureaucrats, trade unions, and the beneficiaries of social benefits.

The hegemonic strategy of Thatcher's populism resulted in a combination of traditional

The consolidation of neoliberal hegemony included the adoption of aesthetic canons of

aims to replace the dominant regulatory framework. It is based on this that social

According to the author, the institutional bodies that support Western societies are faced

with a growing erosion not only of the trust placed by the citizens, but also regarding

detriment of equality as the basic principle of democratic life.

It is paradoxical that there is no robust opposition/rejection to/of the neoliberal project

for financialization of the economy and other aspects of social activity. At this point, the

author “sees” an opportunity for left-wing populism, capturing and mobilizing the

discontent of broad social categories regarding the regime's elites.

any version of the extreme left, but a left that promotes a break with the neoliberal status

quo.

As a consequence, left-wing populism as a collective political actor should intensify the

agonistic confrontation in society and, in particular, in the structures of the State.

The fourth and final chapter, entitled The Construction of a People, is where the author

problematizes the process of radicalization of democracy, which should include the

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 12, Nº. 1 (May-October 2021), pp. 272-277

Critical Review of Mouffe, Chantal (2019). Por Um Populismo de Esquerda.

Colecção Trajectos. Lisboa: Gradiva. ISBN 978-989-616-906-0. 104 pp

several manifestations of the popular will. A second aspect is the emergence and

consolidation of the figure of a leader, preferably with charismatic contours. This double

dimension of building a left-wing populist political actor leads us to two important

observations. On the one hand, the model of democracy underlying the transition from

a neoliberal hegemony to a populist hegemony of the left, in which a citizen's role should

replace that of a consumer. This passage implies active involvement of collective and

community life. On the other hand, the figure of the left populist leader distances itself

from the right populist leader who has authoritarian and centralizing features.

clusters of social conflict, sometimes latent, others manifest. As a result of the neoliberal

come together. It also includes the growing preponderance of affections in politics.

populism, the delimitation of a political frontier will culminate in the discursive dimension.

From this point of view, the negative connotation of populism that proliferates in the

West must be dismantled, since this is nothing more than a strategy originating from

post-political interest groups.

Antagonistically, populism can be seen as a promising strategy of democratic

radicalization and its aspect of equality and social justice, as distinctive criteria of left-

wing populism in relation to the others.

In the Theoretical Appendix - An anti-essentialist approach, the author makes some

conceptual clarifications which, in addition to reinforcing the epistemological and

theoretical foundations of the work, are also pedagogical. She begins by clarifying that

and the meaning of social institutions is fixed” (2019: 90). A second concept, that of

social agent "(...) consists of a set of "discursive positions" that can never be totally fixed

in a closed system of differences" (2019: 90). In short, she affirms that there is no

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 12, Nº. 1 (May-October 2021), pp. 272-277

Critical Review of Mouffe, Chantal (2019). Por Um Populismo de Esquerda.

Colecção Trajectos. Lisboa: Gradiva. ISBN 978-989-616-906-0. 104 pp

An agonistic concept of democracy - the great contemporary challenge for liberal regimes

have to objectively eliminate, but an adversary that gives rise to a fight of ideas in a

clear distinction between the "adversary" and the "enemy".

Even so, fighting against enemies, perceived as those who refuse to play the democratic

game with its rules and principles, cannot be dispensed with. Hence, the distinction

between "antagonism" associated with the enemies of democracy and "agonism" where

different political perspectives are confronted is also relevant.

This work represents a substantive attempt to revalue the concept of “populism” and

recycle it from the social debris where it is commonly found, especially in the daily

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 12, Nº. 1 (May-October 2021), pp. 272-277

Critical Review of Mouffe, Chantal (2019). Por Um Populismo de Esquerda.

Colecção Trajectos. Lisboa: Gradiva. ISBN 978-989-616-906-0. 104 pp