The first full-length critical appraisal of Laclau's work, with contributions from leading philosophers and theorists. The collection includes replies to his critics by Laclau and the important exchange between Laclau and Judith Butler on equality.

Laclau: A Critical Reader is the first full-length critical appraisal of Laclau's work and includes contributions from several leading philosophers and theorists. The first section examines Laclau's theory that the contest between universalism and particularism provides much of the philosophical background to political and social struggle, taking up the important place accorded to, amongst others, Hegel and Lacan in Laclau's work. The second section of the book considers what Laclau's 'radical democracy' might look like and reflects on its ethical implications, particularly in...

A wide-ranging overview of the emergence of post-foundationalism and a survey of the work of its key contemporary exponents.This book presents the first systematic coverage of the conceptual difference between 'politics' (the practice of conventional politics: the political system or political forms of action) and 'the political' (a much more radical aspect which cannot be restricted to the realms of institutional politics). It is also the first introductory overview of post-foundationalism and the tradition of 'left Heideggerianism': the political thought of contemporary theorists who make...

Oliver Marchart presents the main features of Ernesto Laclau's ontology and tracks the development of antagonism from German Idealism via Marx to today's post-Marxism. In doing so, he demonstrates Laclau's significant contribution to the current 'ontological turn' in political thought.