Ernesto Laclau (Spanish: [laˈklau]; 6 October 1935 – 13 April 2014) was an Argentinepolitical theorist. He is often described as post-Marxist. He is well-known for his collaborations with his long-term partner, Chantal Mouffe.

He studied History in Buenos Aires, graduating from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires in 1964, and received a PhD from the University of Essex in 1977.

Since 1986 he served as Professor of Political Theory at the University of Essex, where he founded and directed for many years the graduate programme in Ideology and Discourse Analysis, as well as the Centre for Theoretical Studies in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. Under his directorship, the Ideology and Discourse Analysis programme has provided a research framework for the development of a distinct type of discourse analysis that draws on post-structuralist theory (especially the work of Saussure, Derrida, andWittgenstein) and psychoanalysis (primarily the work of Lacan) to provide innovative analysis of concrete political phenomena, such as identities, discourses and hegemonies. This theoretical and analytical orientation is known today as the 'Essex School of discourse analysis'.^[1]

厄尼斯特·拉克勞（英語：Ernesto Laclau，1935年10月6日－2014年4月13日），出生於阿根廷布宜諾斯艾利斯，政治哲學家、後馬克思主義的代表人物、艾塞克斯大學教授。曾就讀於布宜諾斯艾利斯大學，1966年阿根廷軍事政變後前往英國，就讀於牛津大學。1970年代畢業後在艾塞克斯大學政治系任教。^[1]

他因與尚塔爾·墨菲合著的《領導權與社會主義的策略——走向激進民主政治》（Hegemony and Socialist Strategy）而受到普遍關注。^[1]