The political theory of Ernesto Laclau is a major reference in the field of political science to the debate on contemporary populism and democracy, as well as its contribution to the concept of ideology and discourse analysis. However, studies of this author have not explored the influence of Marxism, especially Louis Althusser in his work. The objective of this work is to rescue this influence and point the dialogue between these two authors, whose link concepts (which have some connection with Lacan's psychoanalysis) of ideology and overdetermination, beyond the issue of contingency that has become one of the most relevant to the work of both authors from the 1980s. To understand the contribution of Althusser and Laclau to analyze the concept of ideology on two axes: the first deals with the innovation that Althusser calls this concept to situate it in terms of imaginary relationships, and the definition of the decentered subject, then the contribution Laclau's from the assumptions Althusserians giving a new definition to the populist-nationalist ideology, and the redefinition of his theory by privileging the concept of discourse to replace the ideology. In the conclusion we point out that the concept of ideology Althusser demonstrates more conceptual precision by be defined as a practice distinctly articulated with other practices of discursive conception (and reductionist) subsequently advocated by Laclau. We realize, therefore, that the theory of ideology Althusser remains current in the field of critical thinking, not only in regard to the reproduction aspects, but also the relations of power transformers.
Ideology; overdetermination; discourse; Althusser; Laclau