Podemos

'A compelling book ... this is an invaluable resource for those of us determined to build a different society.' Owen Jones

'The discussion between Inigo Errejo?n and Chantal Mouffe is a testament to the intertwined relationship between theory and praxis, and the necessity for a dialogue between the two. Theory is never created in a political vacuum and emancipatory politics cannot proceed without a theoretical critique. This incisive and compelling analysis of the current historical conjunction is a must read for theorists, activists and anyone interested in contemporary struggles.'
Marina Prentoulis, Senior Lecturer in Media and Politics, University of East Anglia

'When I was in Spain last winter trying to understand Podemos for a book I was writing on populism, one of the first people I met, a Podemos city councilman from the Madrid suburbs, was carrying around a book entitled Construir Pueblo that he told me I had to read in order to understand Podemos. It is a dialogue between Chantal Mouffe, who along with her late husband Ernesto Laclau, developed a new theory of post-Marxist populism, and Inigo Errejon, the young chief strategist for Podemos, who like other founders of the party had fallen under the spell of Mouffe and Laclau. 'In this book, which is now fortunately available in English translation, Mouffe explains their view that to defend and eventually extend the achievements of social democracy, the left has to develop a politics based on the construction of a "people" (an "us") arrayed against an elite (an "us") rather than relying on the obsolete formula of organizing the working class against the bourgeoisie. 'Mouffe and Errejon by no means agree on everything. Errejon rejects a definition of populist in terms of left vs. right in favour of an entirely vertical definition between the people and the caste. Before you're done with this book, you're get a sense of the entire terrain on which Podemos is operating.'
John B. Judis, author of The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics