Paper short abstract:

The aim of this paper is to address the implications of post-gramscian thought on the concept of state - through the work of authors such as Laclau and Mouffe on the one hand, and the theoretical legacy of Carl Schmitt and Lacanian psychoanalysis on the other hand.

Paper long abstract:

The aim of this paper is to address the implications of post-gramscian thought on the concept of state. Through the work of poststructuralist authors such as Laclau and Mouffe on the one hand, and the theoretical legacy of Carl Schmitt and Lacanian psychoanalysis on the other, it is possible to think the State beyond focusing on the dichotomy sovereign centre Vs. de-centralized, fragmented power relations. Through transcending both Hobbes and Foucault, I explore the complex dialectics between the impossibility and the necessity of condensating power into a hegemonical centre, always already penetrated by incommensurable lack. Due to this lack the uneven distribution of power creates the "ontological" possibility of politics as such.

I start with the Gramscian gesture of re-defining the epiphenomenal notion of the State. Then I deconstruct the Marxist topography of structure-superstructure which inverts the "hierarchical" opposition between the political and the economic. Elevating the political to ontological primacy doesn't come without theoretical impasses, but I will argue that only by holding to this un-decidability between necessity and impossibility of hegemonical power-construction it is possible to engage in emancipatory political struggle.