What is postmodernism, and has it deconstructed political theory?

Introduction

The question has two parts. The first asks what postmodernism is, and the second asks whether I believe that it has deconstructed political theory, that is, taken its assumptions apart. My view is that postmodernism has shaken political theory's assumptions of universality and objectivity but has not destroyed the subject.

Meaning of postmodernism

Postmodernism began as a reaction to modernism, the product of the industrial era in which reason and science replaced traditional explanation and produced grand narratives and all-embracing theories. It sees modernism as centralised and monolithic, suppressing minor identities and voices, and it rejects the idea of a single meaning of truth; it favours a multiplicity of narratives and denies that meta-narratives are possible. It cannot be reduced to a single definition, since it resists definition by nature, and there is disagreement even on whether it is a break with modernity or a continuing critique of it. Eagleton characterises it as a mode of thinking that distrusts the traditional ideas of truth, reason, identity and objectivity, doubts universal progress and emancipation, and rejects single frameworks, grand narratives and final grounds of explanation; set against Enlightenment norms, the world appears contingent, diverse and unstable. The syllabus places it with feminism as a critical perspective in Unit IV.

Main thinkers. Lyotard defined the postmodern condition as "incredulity towards metanarratives" and said that knowledge has become a commodity; Derrida developed deconstruction, which reads texts to reveal their internal conflicts, and attacked logocentrism and fixed meaning; Foucault analysed discourse and the link between power and knowledge; Laclau and Mouffe proposed a post-Marxist "radical democracy".

Postmodernism as a critical perspective

Postmodernism brings out the critical side of political theory by exposing what claims to neutrality conceal. (1) Knowledge and power. Foucault holds that power and knowledge are mutually constitutive, that power is diffused through the social body and acts in institutions such as the family, school, prison and hospital, and that disciplinary power works through observation, normalising judgement and examination. This directs political theory away from the sovereign and the state alone to the micro-practices of rule; he said it was time to "cut off the king's head" in political theory. (2) Deconstruction. Reading texts to bring out their silences and contradictions makes it possible to criticise the canon and the hierarchies that it assumes. (3) Voice for the marginal. By questioning single narratives it makes room for minor identities and voices; Laclau and Mouffe's radical democracy joins anti-racist, environmental, human rights and civil rights struggles. (4) Contemporary context. It asks how globalisation weakens the nation-state and produces plurality and fragmentation.

It is therefore critical in a real sense, but its critical edge has been questioned. Habermas and Eagleton argue that it undermines the emancipatory role of social science, and Foucault's reply is that emancipatory projects often reveal new power-knowledge regimes. The prudent conclusion is that postmodernism sharpens the questions that critical theory asks, while leaving it to other approaches to supply the normative standards by which to answer them.

Has political theory been deconstructed?

Yes, in part. Derrida's technique of reading texts exposes the conflicts and contradictions within them and dismantles the oppositions on which Western philosophy rests. Strictly, on Derrida's own account this is not a method a reader applies: texts deconstruct themselves, which is why he held that deconstruction defies definition. Lyotard's argument that grand narratives (the story of progress through reason, Marx's story of emancipation through class struggle) no longer command belief removed the foundations from many traditional forms of political theory. Foucault showed that the knowledge on which theory relies is bound up with power. Many contemporary theorists accept the criticism of universalism and absolute foundations, though their approaches differ and do not make up a single school.

No, not wholly. (1) The unit stresses that postmodernism is not anti-theory or anti-reason: it questions reason by reason and theorises beyond the given scheme. (2) Political theory has gone on: contemporary theorists still call for a normative, politically engaged theory and for empirical and comparative work, with multiculturalism as one example, and IGNOU sees grounding normative theory in empirical reality as the way past postmodernism's relativity and diffusion. (3) Postmodernism itself can be accused of being a grand narrative, of being inconsistent and of leaving questions about the roots of oppression unanswered. (4) Postmodernism's relativity and diffusion are not always well suited to political projects.

Criticisms of postmodernism

1. It has become a grand narrative itself, and it intensifies personal and social disintegration and despair. (2) Chomsky holds that it is meaningless because it adds nothing to empirical and analytical knowledge. (3) Rosenau points out that it stresses the irrational yet freely uses the instruments of reason, and criticises modernism's inconsistency while refusing to be bound by consistency. (4) It leaves deeper questions about the roots of oppression and marginalisation unanswered. (5) Habermas and Eagleton complain that scepticism about truth and norms makes the emancipatory role of social science doubtful. (6) Its relativism and diffusion are not always well suited to political projects. (7) Its obscurity: it is a heap of ambiguities that offers no clear direction, as the unit itself concedes.

Conclusion

Postmodernism has deconstructed some of political theory's pretensions, namely the claims of a single truth, a neutral standpoint and a universal subject, but it has not replaced political theory. The result is a more reflexive discipline, aware of its situatedness and of the power that works through knowledge.