There is no doubt about the importance of Karl Marx's theory. The only question is whether he understood the economy in a too deterministic manner. In order to emancipate his thought from the pitfalls of possible theoretical reductionism, Western Marxists have examined the reverse influences of ideology on the economic base, while Post-Marxists have tried to side-step the problem from the outset with radical anti-essentialism. However, the best-known post-Marxist theoreticians, Slavoj Žižek, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, have developed their anti-essentialist takes on Marx in different ways. The article reviews their respective theories and argues that, while radical anti-essentialism allows Lacalu and Mouffe to overcome several limitations of classical Marxism, it also brings them dangerously close to relativism. Žižek, on the other hand, claims that class still overdetermines all other social spheres. The authors conclude that his theory thus reveals greater explanatory potential, yet just as with Marx within a somewhat limited understanding of societal dynamics.
|
