Consensual centrist politics shaped Mouffe’s agonistic theory as its foil.

Evidence

The issues discussed in Th~ D~“,omztic Para40x constitute the continuation of a reflection initiated joindy with Ernesto Laclau in HmuJ”y a"" Socialist StraUO and later pursued in Th &tum of th~ PoliticaL The political events which have taken place since this last book was published. with a growing tendency for sociaI-democratic patties to move towards a consensual politics of the centre, have reinforced my conviction that it is urgent for political theory to provide an alternative framework to the dominant one in democratic political theory. — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 22

Categorization

• XREF: Links to Laclau’s and Mouffe’s prior work (Hegemony and Socialist Strategy) and the broader postmarxist tradition; reader’s political-theory line of enquiry will want the genealogy.