The legacy of subalternity and Gramsci's national-popular: populist discourse in the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Drawing on Laclau's concept of populist discourse and Gramsci's national-popular collective will', and using the case of Iran, this article puts forward the idea of the legacy of subalternity in the context of post-revolution governments. The concept of national-popular collective will' facilitates an understanding of how the popular subject is constructed and the meanings embedded in that process. It is argued that Islamic Republic elites articulate a populist discourse that constructs the self' (the Islamic Republic) as synonymous with the people'. Embedded in this discursive construction is a legacy of subalternity that goes back to the 1979 Revolution's populist discourse.