Ernesto Laclau, an influential political thinker for the (new) Chilean left

Abstract

This text takes a look at the intellectual influence of Ernesto Laclau on the Chilean left and progressivism in recent decades. In a personal register, in a tone of homage, some of Laclau’s main theoretical categories are analysed in the context of Chilean political development. Not so much to explain their emergence, which, as is evident, is due to other historical contexts specific to the author, but rather to illustrate how the theory of antagonism, post-Marxism and radical democracy are present in the current Chilean political situation. This is so both in the legacy of the socialist renewal and in the contingent political action of the new political and social movements deployed in Chile from the student revolts of 2011 onwards at least.