Identity and populism in contemporary political theory

Conceptually, the difference between 'politics' and 'the political' is critical to understanding populism in contemporary political theory. Thinking the political as a name for populism, is thinking antagonism, hegemony and identity in Ernesto Laclau political thought. Grounded on negativity, contingency, and antagonism, Laclau's concept of populism is the defining characteristic of the political. The concept is based on the left-Heideggerian ontological difference between the ontic and the ontological, and reflects the political difference between politics and the political in the post-foundational political thought of Oliver Marchart, which draws on Laclau's political reasoning. In this respect, populism explains political logic and, as shown in the course of this investigation, compounds logics both towards the political in the sense of antagonism and to a theory of hegemony in the sense of identity. The concept of populism is distinctively important for this thesis as it defines difference and identity in post-foundational political thought and, more generally, gives meaning to current debates in democracy theory through its relations with social movements. Throughout the thesis, the subject of social movements is made more comprehensive by relating it to radical democracy in the context of Marchart's theoretical approach. In this context, the aim of this thesis is to present an integrated approach that questions and develops some of the basic concepts of Laclau's populism theory in terms of social movements.