Political ontology, ideology and democratic indetermination: An interpretative approach based on Ernesto Laclau, Cas Mudde and Pierre Rosanvallon theoretical-conceptual formulations of populism

• Grant number: 23/08743-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Political Theory
• Principal Investigator: André Vitor Singer
• Grantee: Rafael Marchesan Tauil
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/03534-3 - Entrenched Populism: A conceptual minimum definition departing from Laclau, Mudde and Rosanvallon forms of interpretation, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

This research's central objectives are to make an incursion into the theoretical-conceptual debate of populism based on the formulations of Ernesto Laclau, Cas Mudde and Pierre Rosanvallon and to propose an approximation between these conceptions as a way of expanding the current interpretative perspectives about the phenomena. We believe that the notions of populism as political ontology, ideology and democratic indeterminacy, when used together, have the potential to contribute to new comprehensive perspectives on events of realpolitik known as populist. The three authors proceeded to very precise theoretical-conceptual definitions on the topic throughout their intellectual trajectories and these interpretations have individually contributed to the understanding of what is meant by populism in the field of contemporary political theory in Brazil and around the world. Our intention is to demonstrate that these elaborations, in addition to being important as individual tools, also present new possibilities for understanding when used simultaneously. In this sense, elements such as the incorporation of empty meanings by political leaders, the fundamental separation at the discursive-ideological level between "pure people" and "corrupt elite" and democratic simplification, its subsequent immediacy and polarization, can all, in fact, be understood as important components in characterizing the specificities in question. The incursion into the theoretical-conceptual debate and the interpretative proposal will be carried out based on five methodological steps: an internalist approach to the work of the three authors as a whole; a theoretical-contextual study, taking into account the fundamental theoretical frameworks on which these intellectuals focused in the construction of their arguments; a bibliographical review focusing on the reception of conceptual elaborations under analysis today; a review of the intellectual debates in which these authors are or were inserted; and, in the adoption of the abstraction ladder as a methodological reference in the conceptual formulation that we are proposing. The five stages aim to exegete the work of the three authors and, based on their deconstruction, the articulation and rapprochement between their central elements, looking forward to contributing to another perspective of understanding through a minimal conceptual definition.