Ethical-political review of the concept of “people” in Ernesto Laclau and Enrique Dussel

Abstract

In this article specific aspects of the theories of Enrique Dussel and Ernesto Laclau are reviewed, placing special emphasis on the relevance of the ethical dimension for understanding the distance between both theoretical positions. The development of the argumentation seeks to demonstrate a hypothesis that can be synthesized in three specific nuclei: the importance of the relationship between ethics and politics in the respective theoretical productions, the priority of ethics in the case of Dussel and the incidence of this difference related to such priority in the theoretical consideration of the concepts of “people” and “populism” by both authors.