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For a Left Populism
by Chantal Mouffe
(Verso, £8.79)
NEOLIBERALISM — an ideology that once dominated the world, forcing an economic and political consensus from major parties of left and right — is in crisis, argues political theorist Chantal Mouffe.
The financial crash of 2008 prompted its decade-long retreat from the global stage and politics, once a “a mere issue of managing the established order, a domain reserved for experts,” is fast becoming the realm of “the outsider.”
We are, she contends, living in a “populist moment” but, crucially, with “a real possibility for the construction of a more democratic order.” But others are busy at work claiming this freshly vacated political territory. The left needs to catch up.
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