Chantal Mouffe (; born 17 June 1943) is a Belgian

political theorist A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars. Ancient * Aristotle * Chanakya * Cicero * Confucius * Mencius * ...

, formerly teaching at University of Westminster. She is best known for her and Ernesto Laclau's contribution to the development of the so-called Essex School of discourse analysis. She is a strong critic of

deliberative democracy Deliberative democracy or discursive democracy is a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision-making. Deliberative democracy seeks quality over quantity by limiting decision-makers to a smaller but more representative sample ...

and advocates a conflict-oriented model of

radical democracy Radical democracy is a type of democracy that advocates the radical extension of equality and liberty. Radical democracy is concerned with a radical extension of equality and freedom, following the idea that democracy is an unfinished, inclusive, ...

Education

Chantal Mouffe studied at the Universities of

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

and has worked in many universities throughout the world (in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

). She has also held visiting positions at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

, Cornell, Princeton and the CNRS (Paris). During 1989–1995, she served as Programme Director at the Collège international de philosophie in Paris. She currently holds a professorship at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Westminster in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, where she is a member of the Centre for the Study of Democracy.

Work

She developed a type of

post-Marxist Post-Marxism is a perspective in Critical theory, critical social theory which radically reinterprets Marxism, countering its association with economism, historical determinism, Antihumanism, anti-humanism, and class reductionism, whilst remai ...

political inquiry drawing on

Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , ; ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a fo ...

post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...

and theories of identity, and redefining Leftist politics in terms of radical democracy. With Laclau she co-authored her most frequently cited publication '' Hegemony and Socialist Strategy'', and she is also the author of influential works on agonistic political theory, including ''Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically'' and ''The Democratic Paradox''. Her book '' For a Left Populism'' was published in 2018. A prominent critic of

(especially in its Rawlsian and Habermasian versions), she is also known for her use of the work of

Carl Schmitt Carl Schmitt (11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, author, and political theorist. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. An authoritarian conservative theorist, he was noted as a critic of ...

, mainly his concept of "the political", in proposing a radicalization of modern democracy—what she calls "agonistic pluralism". She has developed an interest in highlighting the radical potential of artistic practices. Mouffe's ''Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically'' (2013) has been criticised by Timothy Laurie for its strong focus on State institutions, noting that Mouffe's "professed enthusiasm for (some) non-Western Islamist movements is solely conditional upon their assumption of State instruments".

Critical

The sociologist Pierre Birnbaum believes that Chantal Mouffe's theory is "fundamentally foreign to any Marxist or even socialist demonstration, and also contrary to any sociological analysis." He particularly calls into question her recourse to voters' emotions rather than their reason, "in an explicit rejection of the rationalist tradition of the Enlightenment embodied by

Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas ( , ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt S ...

", but also of "the essentials of contemporary political theory"; according to the sociologist, Chantal Mouffe's thought is "an interpretation of the foundations of mobilization certainly inspired explicitly by the experiences of Latin America, but which seems to find its distant origin in the rants, in the 19th century, of Gustave Le Bon or of Gabriel Tarde.". Via Cairn.info.

Publications

* (ed.) ''Gramsci and Marxist Theory''. London – Boston: Routledge / Kegan Paul, 1979. * (with Ernesto Laclau) ''Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics''. London – New York: Verso, 1985. * (ed.) ''Dimensions of Radical Democracy: Pluralism, Citizenship, Community''. London – New York: Verso, 1992. *''The Return of the Political''. London – New York: Verso, 1993. *''Le politique et ses enjeux. Pour une démocratie plurielle''. Paris: La Découverte/MAUSS, 1994. * (ed.) ''Deconstruction and Pragmatism''. London – New York: Routledge, 1996. * (ed.) ''The Challenge of Carl Schmitt''. London – New York: Verso, 1999. *'' The Democratic Paradox''. London – New York: Verso, 2000. * (ed.) ''Feministische Perspektiven''. Wien: Turia + Kant, 2001. * (ed.) ''The legacy of Wittgenstein: Pragmatism or Deconstruction''. Frankfurt am Main – New York: Peter Lang, 2001. *'' On the Political''. Abingdon – New York: Routledge, 2005. * ''Hegemony, Radical Democracy, and the Political'', edited by James Martin, London: Routledge, 2013. * ''Agonistics: Thinking The World Politically''. London – New York: Verso, 2013. * Mouffe C, 1995 ‘Post-marxism: democracy and identity’, Environment and Planning D vol.13 pp. 259–266 ML: P305 E30. * (in conversation with Íñigo Errejón) ''Podemos: In the Name of the People'' (trans. Sirio Canos), London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2016. *'' For a Left Populism''. London – New York: Verso, 2018. *''Towards a Green Democratic Revolution''. London - New York: Verso, 2022.

Honors

* Doctorate, ''honoris causa'', University of Valparaíso,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

(2014). * Doctorate, ''honoris causa'', University of Costa Rica (2019). * Doctorate, ''honoris causa'',

KU Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its mai ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

(2019).

Education

Work

Critical

Publications

Honors

See also

References

Further reading