The Populist Leader and Modern Sovereignty: the Hobbesian Excess of Ernesto Laclau?

Abstract

This article aims to state again the context in which Laclau evokes Hobbes and the criticism made regarding his work. I will argue that this criticism is sustained in a shared reading with Laclau of the modern concept of sovereignty. However, it will be added that Laclau and his critics read the legal-political  device of Leviathan without knowing the also Hobbesian rejection of dualist metaphysics (both classical and modern). For this materialist Hobbes, the political problem of sovereignty does not lie on its foundation, but on its movement. Finally, I will try to specify the effects that this other reading of Hobbes provokes when compared to the populist investiture of Laclau.