VERS L’ÉMERGENCE D’UN NOUVEAU CONTRAT SOCIAL : UNE ANALYSE DU POPULISME FRANÇAIS DE GAUCHE A L’UNE DE LA THEORIE POSTSTRUCTURALISTE DU DISCOURS

Abstract

Towars the Emergence of a New Social Contract : An Analysis of French Left-Wing Populism through Poststructuralist discourse Theory. Drawing on poststructuralist discourse theory (Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe), this article examines how, against the backdrop of the erosion of the neoliberal model, of the growing delegitimization of governing parties and of an increasingly manifest climate crisis, Jean-Luc Mélenchon contributes not only to the ideological and political revitalization of the Left but also to the reconfiguration of the very social contract. Underexplored in existing literature, this reconfiguration is ideally clarified by poststructuralist discourse theory, as we will show by assessing the candidate’s discourse during the 2022 presidential election campaign. The deployment of PDT in this analysis will also shed light on the constitutive impossibility of any proposition of social contract of being fully inclusive, thus advancing that antagonism and exclusion are not problematic features of populism, but inextricable characteristics of democracy itself.