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Article published In:
Discourse Theory: Ways forward for theory development and research practice
Edited by Benjamin De Cleen, Jana Goyvaerts, Nico Carpentier, Jason Glynos, Yannis Stavrakakis and Ilija Tomanić Trivundža
[Journal of Language and Politics 20:1] 2021
► pp. 162–177

The (discursive) limits of (left) populism

ORCID logo | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
As far as the study of (left) populism is concerned, Political Discourse Theory has been largely associated with a novel and challenging take on populist politics, first emerging in Laclau’s work in the 1970s and preoccupying Laclau, Mouffe and their co-travellers continuously since then. What has not been adequately articulated yet is what would be the limits of (left) populism as a political strategy from a discursive perspective. This short paper aims at remedying this lacuna in the relevant literature indicating certain ways forward for the discursive analysis of populism. The argument operates both at a theoretical and conceptual level as well as at the level of historical, empirical analysis.
Keywords: populism, discourse, limits, democracy, sovereignty, power, nationalism, leadership, left
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discursive fluidity in political antagonism: When the left is not populist enough
  • 3.The limits of populism in government
  • 4.Populism’s inherent limit?
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 16 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20047.sta
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