Laclau signifiers

[caramelpence]

I'm having some difficulty understanding Laclau's distinction between empty and floating signifiers and, in general, the content of his theory of ideology. As I understand it Laclau's understanding of ideology is concerned with the mechanisms by which societies come to present the possibility of meaningful fulness, or closure, which is what ideologies actually do for Althusser, but this is a possibility that is ultimately illusory for Laclau, and ideology centrally embodies the "filling-out" of empty signifiers, i.e. contestable concepts, that are otherwise essentially empty of meaning but which can be filled in order to conduct the function of presenting fulness. But where do floating signifiers come in? Does the filling of empty signifiers transform them into floating signifiers? Or are floating signifiers something else entirely?

[Minima]

This is an early attempt. I will try to respond again after I go through some sources and make things clearer for myself.

In this, an Floating signifier is closely related to Zizek's point de capiton, which unifies an ideological field and provides it with an identity. "For example, freedom in itself is an open ended word. the meaning of which can slide about depending on the context of its use. A right wing interpretation of the word might designate freedom to speculate on the market, whereas a left-wing interpretation might use it to designate freedom from the inequalities of the market.

"Freedom" is an 'floating signifier' which changes when viewed from different ideological 'point de capiton' such as "left-communism" "liberal-democracy" (zizek)
"Fascism" is an 'floating signifier' which takes on the qualities of whatever populism it happens to represent.
"Democracy" is a floating signifier which takes on the qualities of whatever constitutes it's government. (laclau)

[Minima]

In an empty signifier an over-determination or an under-determination prevents it from being fully fixed. An empty signifier points, from within the process of signification, to the discursive presence of it's own limits.

In this a democracy is an empty signifier in that it's realization in any form, (a popular vote for an anti-democratic fascism) causes it's own dissolution. A democracy that prevents it's own realization, (through constitutional limits on it's own democratic possibility) is short of being a 'true' democracy.

An example given of an empty signifier is music.
an over determination (specificity) of meaning causes music to become language.
If music did not signify anything, it would become noise.