Abstract
There are multiple perspectives even within a current called “radical democracy” in contemporary democratic theories. Of these this paper focuses on the political theory of Ernesto Laclau. Laclau' s political theory has not been studied extensively in spite of his great influence on academism today. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to clarify how Laclau has developed his thinking and to examine the possibility of his democratic theory. In order to make these points clear, we shall take up the problem of “subject.” For, while Laclau understood subject as “subject position” in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, in the later works he considered it as “subject of lack.” Through analyzing this change I would like to indicate that Laclau could connect his hegemony theory with deconstruction and suggest a new relationship between the universal and the particular. In conclusion, I consider how Laclau deepened his democratic theory by introducing “subject of lack” and clarify the meaning of radical democracy in his theory.
