An Analysis Of The Theory Of Discourse Hegemony Of Laclau And Murphy

After World War II,Western capitalist society gradually moved towards the post industrial era.Instead of revolutionizing due to class oppression as predicted by Marx,the working class increasingly showed a tendency towards labor contracts under the adjustment of capitalism itself and the improvement of the welfare system,and the working class itself gradually became fragmented and complex.Accordingly,some Western Marxists believe that the working class is no longer able to assume the task of leading the socialist revolution as a complete class.Many leftist theorists have begun to adjust socialist revolutionary strategies and rethink the leadership of the working class in the revolution.It is against this background that the discourse hegemony theory of Laclau and Murphy was born.The theory of discourse hegemony is the core of Laclau and Murphy’s post Marxist thoughts.Their discourse ideology advocates that all social existence is discourse,providing us with an ideal paradigm through discourse.Firstly,it deconstructs essentialism and totality in traditional Marxism,interpreting socialism as a decentralized concept;Secondly,emphasizing the autonomy of ideology,and on the basis of absorbing postmodernism and post structuralism,constructing a hegemonic bonding practice dominated by randomness,that is,forming political identity among diverse subjects through links;Thirdly,we attach importance to these highly differentiated and heterogeneous social components,and believe that in the face of this fragmented form of struggle,traditional class alliances have lost their effectiveness.The new socialist revolutionary strategy should be to link subjects with the same political tendencies in a specific discourse context,thereby achieving a "pluralistic and radical democracy" dominated by differences and randomness,This strategy is used to address the diverse development of today’s era,thereby abandoning traditional violent means and achieving socialism through peaceful means.The discourse hegemony theory of Laclau and Murphy,as representatives of Western post Marxist thought,has certain theoretical value and proposes a new approach for us to think about socialist issues.Meanwhile,their emphasis on the field of ideology can provide certain reference value for the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.However,this theory lacks feasibility in practice and is essentially a utopia.