Radicalism and indifference
Memory transmission, political formation and modernization in Hungary and Europe
Published on 23. May 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
284 pages
978-3-631-67417-8 (ISBN)
Description
Most theories of radicalization focus on the birth of antidemocratic ideas, semantics, behavior patterns and organizations. However, such focus is one-sided: radicalization is as much about the forgetting of historical lessons and the weakening of a democratic consensus, as the spreading of populist ideas. A case study of public and private processes of memory transmission in Hungary reveals how the ambiguous relation to modernization affects political formation: the failures provoke populist reactions, while the successes result in political indifference. The combination of these two political cultures creates a dangerous compound including both the opportunity for the birth of antidemocratic semantics and their ignorance. The author analyzes the potential of such «incubation of radicalism» on a European survey.
More details
Person
Domonkos Sik is sociologist and philosopher, working as an assistant professor at the University Eötvös Loránd in Budapest. His research focuses on critical theories of modernization and political formation in post-transition countries.
Content
Contents: Central European experience of modernity - Identity crisis and memory transmittance - Memory vacuum, distortions of communication and deprivation from recognition in Hungary - Post-socialist radicalism and indifference - European patterns of political culture.