Laclau, Murphy Radical Democratic Theory Study

As a result of reconsidering Marxism with the method of post-modernism, the radical democratic theory has caused widespread argument in academe from its beginning. Its viewpoint about society's whole constitution and law of development distinguished obviously to the social development theory of Marxism, while reflected that many Western scholars endeavored to reconsider the democracy practice and search the law of development of society under the new situation.On the basis of the profound thinking about the theory characteristic, the basic content and the ideological content of radical democratic theory, this article will conclude critically that Laclau and Mouffe have widespread misunderstanding and prejudice about Marxism. What this article will point out emphatically is that although pluralistic subject is helpful to the realization of freedom, equality and democracy, the premise is that pluralistic subject must under the guidance of a unified idea of value. On the other hand, although the practice of discourse is the important aspects in the process of the human survival and the development, the foundation of the conversation can not be separated from practice. The content of the conversation is also on the impact of many factors such as material interests, spiritual aspirations and so on. As a result, Laclau and Mouffe's attitude about the role of discourse practice of the pluralistic subject in the realization of democracy is over-optimistic. The consequence is that the spirit of criticism that the theory should have was lost, therefore, the criticism of capitalism to a certain extent reduced to the acquiescence of present situation of capitalism.