The Book of Others

This book examines the enduring influence of four major political thinkers; Carl Schmitt, Louis Althusser, Ernesto Laclau, and Jacque Rancière; and through themes like modernity, constituent power, decisionism, ideology, hegemony, populism, and dissensus, explores how each thinker redefines the political as a space of contestation.

Benjamin Arditi is Professor of Political Theory at the National University of Mexico, UNAM. He is the author of Politics on the Edges of Liberalism: Difference, Populism, Revolution, Emancipation (Edinburgh, 2007) and Is There Such a Thing as Populism? (Routledge, 2025).

Introduction: Who Are the Others? Chapter 1. Modernity, Democracy, and Mundane Constituent Capacity. Chapter 2. Schmitt Contra Schmitt: Taking on the Political. Chapter 3. Althusser: The Gleam of Theory. Chapter 4. Laclau's Post-Marxism: Politics Means Hegemony. Chapter 5. The Landscape of Post-Hegemony: Elections, Infrapolitics, Multitude, and Viral Politics. Chapter 6. Populism Is Hegemony Is Politics: Ernesto Laclau's Theory of Populism. Chapter 7. Fidelity to Disagreement: Jacques Rancière and Politics.