How counter-critique problematises power: on the ‘tyranny’ of ideas

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dc.contributor.authorBoland, T.
dc.date.accessioned2026-04-28T14:00:01Z
dc.date.available2026-04-28T14:00:01Z
dc.date.issued2026-04-21
dc.description.abstractDrawing 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.en
dc.description.versionPublished Version
dc.format.extent17
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.authororcidBoland, T.§0000-0003-4947-9430
dc.identifier.citationBoland, T 2026, 'How counter-critique problematises power: on the ‘tyranny’ of ideas', Journal of Political Power, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 366-382. https://doi.org/10.1080/2158379X.2026.2656877
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/2158379X.2026.2656877
dc.identifier.endpage382
dc.identifier.issn2158-379X
dc.identifier.issued2
dc.identifier.journaltitleJournal of Political Power
dc.identifier.otherRIS: urn:81996D79FEC828E885B49A1BA24FBC02
dc.identifier.startpage366
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/18700
dc.identifier.volume19
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherRoutledge
dc.relation.urihttps://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105036149323
dc.rights© 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
dc.rights.accessrightsopen access
dc.rights.licensenameAttribution 4.0 International
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.statusPeer reviewed
dc.subjectCritique
dc.subjectDiscourse
dc.subjectFoucault
dc.subjectIdeology
dc.subjectPower
dc.subject[SocietyPoliticsEthics]
dc.subjectideology
dc.subjectpower
dc.subjectdiscourse
dc.titleHow counter-critique problematises power: on the ‘tyranny’ of ideasen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)
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