How counter-critique problematises power: on the ‘tyranny’ of ideas
Loading...
Date
2026-04-21
Authors
Boland, T.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Published Version
Abstract
Drawing on a corpus of books by conservative, right-wing or reactionary authors–together termed ‘counter-critics’–this article examines how they represent their opponents’ ideas as ‘tyranny’, as ‘authoritarian’ or even ‘totalitarian’. Rather than offering a theoretical account of ‘power’, the approach here follows a Foucauldian approach to ‘problematisation’, examining how ‘power’ is represented in discourse. Beyond tracing how counter-critics denounce their opponents as ‘tyrannical’, what emerges here is how a special power is attributed to words and ideas, both to enchant people with ideology and to dispel such delusions. Finally, this article offers reflexive considerations concerning the practice of critique. © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Description
© 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. T. Boland; Department of Sociology and Criminology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; email: tom.boland@ucc.ie
Keywords
Critique , Discourse , Foucault , Ideology , Power , [SocietyPoliticsEthics]
Citation
Boland, T 2026, 'How counter-critique problematises power: on the ‘tyranny’ of ideas', Journal of Political Power, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/2158379X.2026.2656877
Link to publisher’s version
Collections
Copyright
cc_by