Demand meanings get fixed only through hegemonic struggles over frontiers.

Evidence

We could represent their operation, following the previous diagram, in this way: … As we can see, D1 is submitted to the structural pressure of two antagonistic equivalential chains represented by the dotted lines: the horizontal corresponds to the popular camp opposing Tsarism, as in the first diagram. The diagonal, however, establishes an equivalential link between D1, belonging to the popular camp, and two other demands that the latter would oppose as belonging to the camp of Tsarism. So we have two antagonistic ways of constituting the ‘people’ as a historical actor. The way in which the meaning of D1 is going to be fixed will depend on the result of a hegemonic struggle. So the ‘floating’ dimension becomes most visible in periods of organic crisis, when the symbolic system needs to be radically recast. — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 266

Categorization

• XREF: Empirical illustration: the New Deal’s ‘defence of the small man’ later captured by moral-majority conservatism. — connects to: Situations reproduce hegemony yet remain not fully determined by it — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 879; Political struggle, not military force, determines hegemonic outcomes — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 105; Hegemony is reproduced through unstable, shifting equilibria rather than static dominance (+3 more)
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Hegemony is forged through cultural and ideological struggle, not just force. #corroborates (0.95) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 126
• Situations reproduce hegemony yet remain not fully determined by it #qualifies (0.85) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 879
• Hegemony is reproduced through unstable, shifting equilibria rather than static dominance #expands (0.85)
• Signs stay vital only through class struggle over their meaning. #exemplifies (0.80)
• Hegemonic rule substitutes protracted positional struggle for frontal assault on the state. #expands (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 626
• Political struggle, not military force, determines hegemonic outcomes #expands (0.78) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 105