Paradoxes of Populism
137 pages
English

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137 pages
English

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Description

A study of the rising popularity of populism and the misconceptions surrounding it


“Paradoxes of Populism” argues that populism, far-from-random similarities with ordinary manifestations of nationalism, should be approached not as a venture into the classical structures of nation-states and identities, but as a disruptive and destabilizing consequence of some of the constituent elements of sovereign nation-states becoming eroded and prised apart by contextual global processes and their agents. The book demonstrates that populism, in its many varieties, is riddled with even more paradoxes and inconsistencies than mainstream nationalism itself––confusing causes and appearances, realities and fantasies and turning the world inside out. This book definitively engages with real-world challenges that the age of populism, the Second Coming of Nationalism, poses in liberal democracies states as well as their political and cultural interpretations in the populist fantasia.


Acknowledgements; Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. What Is the Problem?; 3. The People and Popular Sovereignty: Back to Basics, and Onward…; 4. The Nationalization of the People; 5. Fantasies and Paradoxes of Populism; 6. Myths and Misconceptions; 7. Sweden––Intransigent Moralities at War in the People’s Home; 8. Catalonia––toward a State Truly Our Own!; 9. Hungary––Righteous Revenge for Historic Humiliations; 10. Brexit––between Despair and Delusion; 11. USA––Normalizing a Superpower by Abnormal Means; 12. Extractions and Perspectives; References; Index.

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Publié par
Date de parution 29 février 2020
Nombre de lectures 0
EAN13 9781785272165
Langue English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Paradoxes of Populism
Paradoxes of Populism
Troubles of the West and Nationalism’s Second Coming
Ulf Hedetoft
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2020
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
Copyright © Ulf Hedetoft 2020
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019955629
ISBN-13: 978-1-78527-214-1 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78527-214-4 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an e-book.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. What Is the Problem?
3. The People and Popular Sovereignty. Back to Basics, and Onward …
4. The Nationalization of the People
5. Fantasies and Paradoxes of Populism
6. Myths and Misconceptions
7. Sweden—Intransigent Moralities at War in the People’s Home
8. Catalonia—Toward a State Truly Our Own!
9. Hungary—Righteous Revenge for Historic Humiliations
10. Brexit—Between Despair and Delusion
11. The United States—Normalizing a Superpower by Abnormal Means
12. Extractions and Perspectives
References
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“‘All over Europe you see the same split,’ says France’s Economy Minister Le Maire. ‘One part benefiting from globalization, and the other suffering from globalization.’ Without a drastic fix, nationalism will increase its hold on the continent. ‘The status quo is not an option,’ he says. ‘The status quo will lead to the end of Europe.’”
This gloomy prediction is from an article by Vivienne Walt, published by TIME on April 11, 2019. It encapsulates my reason for writing this book about the paradoxes of populism and its implications for the entire Western world. Europe, read the EU, is clearly significant, but populism—the contemporary, most conspicuous variant of nationalism—reaches far beyond the borders of that troubled continent, having taken root in the Americas and the Far and Near East as well. Whatever we might think of this phenomenon, there is no doubt that it has wide-ranging implications for the future of the globe, as regards questions of identity, politics, culture and economics too. In this monograph, I present a theory of populism, an analysis of some of its many varieties and the possible consequences for the world we inhabit, from a perspective informed mainly by cultural history and political philosophy.
The manuscript was written over a six-month period, starting in October 2018 and ending in May 2019, almost simultaneously with the sorry end of Theresa May’s Brexit troubles and the staging of Matteo Salvini’s Milan conference on the creation of the European Alliance for Peoples and Nations —two events that embody the paradoxical, many-headed nature of populism. Brexit tries, so far in vain, to extricate the UK from its ignominious dependence on “the Continent,” whereas the efforts of its continental “partners in crime” (having learnt the lessons from the British faux pas) aim to change the EU fundamentally and either remake the organization into a regime consisting of sovereign, ethnically pure nation-states or render it dysfunctional—and thus destroy it. That this objective, too, is riddled with paradoxes, pitfalls and unpleasant surprises for the participating members has so far been overshadowed by their nationalist idealism, their passionate intensity and their moralizing belief of fighting for the rights and identities of their respective Peoples.
My efforts have in no small way been supported by colleagues and students associated with the Centre for the Study of Nationalism and the Saxo Institute at the University of Copenhagen and by many international colleagues as well. They have all contributed invaluable inspiration and thoughtful suggestions. I would particularly like to thank historian Mogens Pelt and sociologist of religion Susanne William Rasmussen—as well as three anonymous reviewers—for their helpful and incisive comments on the full draft manuscript, which made me aware of arguments deserving elaboration and connections in need of clarification. I am also indebted to Acquisitions Editor Megan Greiving and the entire staff at Anthem Press for their help with numerous practical matters and, needless to say, for their interest in publishing this book.
Finally, I wish to thank my family—Lone, my wife, and my sons Christopher and Mathias—for stimulating discussions about contemporary politics and, not least, for their love, support and patience, when things got stressful and phrases lacked the necessary precision.
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
A specter by the name of populism haunts not just Europe but the entire Western world. And as the case is with all specters, it is an oddly elusive being, doing its best to avoid precise description. It is analytically and conceptually hard to catch. Its nature is contested, being variously seen as an ideology, a discourse, a morality or a political strategy (cf. Gidron and Bonikowski 2014 ; Ionescu and Gellner 1969 ; Kaltwasser et al. 2017 ).
It undoubtedly puts on all of these clothes at different points in time and in different settings, precisely like its parent, mainstream nationalism itself. 1 I see the core of populism as being exactly that: a child of nationalism and national identity, its oft-quoted “thin ideology” (Mudde 2004 ; Stanley 2008 ) having risen in political impact and visibility since the turn of the century, in Western and non-Western countries alike. It shares with mainstream nationalism the insistence on the pivotal role of “the people,” on the importance of national sovereignty, on the centrality of cultural and historical homogeneity and on the division between “us” as laudable and “them” as foreign and potentially threatening, whether in the form of immigrants, supranational collaboration or the EU.
However, it also differs from the normal design of nationalism and national identities by adding, to its list of opponents, people and groups normally considered an integral part of the national setup—elites especially—and by placing extraordinary and hyper-moralistic stress on the role of “the people” as the ultimate umpire and principal referent of the rightful composition and future of the nation-state and its borders. Furthermore, it is not concerned with recognizing other nation-states, nor the international order, but is basically intent on keeping its own territory and population clean, pure and uncontaminated; its borders rigid and unassailable; and its cultural heritage and popular memories proud and protected.
Thus far it may come across as little more than an extreme form of national belonging—nationalism run wild so to speak—a case for national psychologists or a kind of collective pathology. 2 However, as so often, appearances are deceiving. I contend that these far-from-random similarities with ordinary manifestations of nationalism should be approached not as a venture into the classical structures of nation-states and identities but as a disruptive and destabilizing consequence of some of the constituent elements of sovereign nation-states becoming eroded and prized apart by contextual global processes and their agents. Hence, populism in all its varieties—and there are many, as this book will demonstrate—is riddled with even more paradoxes and inconsistencies than “mainstream” nationalism itself—confusing causes and appearances, realities and fantasies, and turning the world inside-out. This is truly the Second Coming of nationalism, and it has come with a vengeance. It is not really a specter as much as a beast. The Coming of it, however, happens on the background of real problems for millions of ordinary people in liberal–democratic states. This book sets out to engage with these real-world challenges as well as their political and cultural interpretation in the populist fantasia.
To be more exact: the familiar dualities of the national order—nations and states; national identities and national interests; moral and pragmatic considerations; state and popular sovereignties; national priorities and international recognition—are, I contend, beginning to fall apart rather than, as earlier, being intimately wedded to each other. The congruity between “state” and “nation,” which Ernest Gellner spoke about in his Nations and Nationalism ( 1983 ) as the primary determinant of nationalism, is under siege and in the process of breaking down. Anarchy and disaggregation domestically are threatening, sovereignty is being eroded, borders are being forced open, cultural and societal diversity is gaining ground and people (at least large parts of the people) are losing both the horizontal and the vertical trust, w

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