ABSTRACT
A core concern in the study of the interface between language and politics is the issue of how ideological power is attained and maintained through certain types of language use, resulting in a distinct kind of symbolic structuring of the socio-political space. This issue is at the heart of Ernesto Laclau's work on discourse and hegemony. Here, for a start, hegemony can be taken to signify the kind of political power constituted not through brute repression or domination, nor through the inertia of tradition or convention, but by way of formulating a political or ideological programme for society with which people can actively identify and invest in emotionally.
