Resumo

The economic conditions and austerity policies in southern Europe have produced a hegemonic crisis of democracy, lead towards divergent perspectives. In the political struggle for the meaning of democracy as Laclauian Master-signifier, new hegemonic or counterhegemonic alliances are formed. While unions and the traditional left questioned the idea of a democracy without its social substance in the form of social rights - new social movements have radicalized the idea. Demanding “democracia real ya!”, they directly attacked representation and the political system as a whole.

This paper makes a critical analysis of the anti-political and anti-ideological stance of the newest social movements in Portugal and problematizes its possible articulation with the post-political elements of the dominant neoliberal form. Therefore it first discusses the concept of depolitization and post-politics and its link with the dominant neoliberal ideology. Then this framework is then applied to the founding manifestos of a selection of 6 anti-austerity social movements; Movimento Geração á Rasca, Movimento 12 Março, Acampada do Rossio, Indignados de Lisboa, Acampada de Coimbra and Que Se Lixe a Troika. In each of these manifestoes the elements that reflect the post-political discourse about democracy are selected and criticized. These elements include the self-identification as “personal” and “post-ideological”, taking distance of (party)politics and addressing the crisis as a problem of “politicians”. We will argue that this critique of “the old way of doing politics” and the post-ideological stance; as well as the ilusions in participative democracy as such, actually are Fukuyamaist, and avoid addressing the structural problems of the political economy behind the crisis. A conscience of these post-political elements is crucial to avoid a cooptation of this discourse in the dominant neoliberal framework and to make possible an articulation with other anti-capitalist forces in order to bring forward a unified counter hegemonic discourse able to mobilise and politicize the different layers of society against austerity policies.