The ambiguous Heritage of Mitteleuropa: the Resurfacing of Mitteleuropa as a Counter-image to the EU in Austrian Populism

The analysis in this article addresses the resurfacing of Mitteleuropain the populist discourse or, more precisely, the use of Mitteleuropa-ideas in the political strategies of the Austrian FPÖ (Austria's right-wing `Freedom Party'). The plans of the future European assessment spread by the European right-wing populism have an ambiguous character, which partly reproduces the ambiguity of the traditional definitions ofMitteleuropa in the debate at the beginning of the twentieth century. The article shows that the FPÖ's use of the concept ofMitteleuropa must be analysed with regard to the problem of the Austrian identity, because the ambiguous status of an ‘Austrian identity between Mitteleuropa and German re-union’ is the most important condition underpinning the emergence of the FPÖ. Secondly, the choice of a particular idea ofMitteleuropa - the Mitteleuropadefined by principles of exclusion, by a strong German culture and identity (Kulturnation), and strict reference to a Volksgemeinschaft with a territory and a culture that are juxtaposed to a cosmopolitan and liberal idea of Mitteleuropa- reveals the FPÖ's historical legacy and its opposition towards democracy and the representative institutions. Finally, the question is raised as to whether Haider should be considered not only an Austrian phenomenon, but an Austrian reaction to political and economic transformations, which evoke other protest movements in Europe. On the one hand, Haider is an Austrian phenomenon. On the other hand, he represents an Austrian reaction to political and economic transformations. In this sense, Haider's populism can be compared to France's Le Pen or Belgium's Vlaams Blokif we look at the form of popular legitimacy that they invoke, the request for a re-territorialisation of politics and for the defence of a national / European identity, and the opposition to constitutional patriotism and to all forms of ``thin'' European identities.     

Confrontation by default and confrontation by design: strategic and institutional responses to Poland's populist coalition government

For a short and controversial period in 2006–2007, Poland was governed by a three-party “populist coalition” which attempted to break with the liberal-democratic model of post-communist transition and implement a far-reaching set of reforms. In this article, I analyse the ways in which domestic and external actors responded to the challenges posed by this coalition. I argue that Poland's Constitutional Court and the temporarily united opposition parties were key to repelling the populist challenge. However, the anti-populist response was driven less by a deliberate strategy than by the confrontational logic of populism itself, and the institutional design of Poland's liberal-democratic system. I conclude with a discussion of several lessons the Polish case holds for further analyses of anti-populist reaction.     

Neoliberal developmentalism,authoritarian populism,and extractivism in the countryside: the Soma mining disaster in Turkey

ABSTRACT

While state-society relations in Turkey have historically been top-down and coups d’état periodically interrupted democratic politics, the recent authoritarian turn under Erdo?an is remarkable. Two dynamics are especially salient. First, Erdo?an and his AKP have been particularly effective in deepening the neoliberalisation of economy and society. Their policies have created a new form of neoliberal developmentalism, where solutions to all social ills have come to be seen as possible through rapid economic growth. Second, they have intensified the transformation of the countryside, where new forms of dispossession and deagrarianisation open the way to an unprecedented extractivist drive. Together, neoliberal developmentalism and extractivism have resulted in growing social dissent. The eruption of anger after the Soma coal mining disaster that killed 301 miners is one such case. The paper shows how Erdo?an and the AKP use populist tactics (ranging from an uptick in nationalist discourse to the provision of ‘coal aid’ in winter) to assuage their critics. Where these prove inadequate, an increasingly violent crackdown on social dissent is being deployed in the name of peace and order as the country remains in a state of emergency since the attempted coup of July 2016.     

香港社会中民粹主义的影响、成因及消解

香港社会中的民粹主义给香港政治社会发展带来很多消极影响,增加了特别行政区政府依法施政的难度,妨碍香港政治发展的进程,并引起香港一些居民与中央政府的对抗.香港社会中的民粹主义由民生等经济问题而引发,并因选举政治而加剧.消解民粹主义,需要香港社会权力体系和财产体系的分配应照顾各阶层的利益,必须保障草根阶层的基本权利；政府必须兼顾社会精英和普罗大众的利益,对两者的矛盾应加以调和,促成两者的妥协.     

The Age of Anxiety: The Crisis of Liberal Democracy in a Post-Hegemonic Global Order

The crisis of liberal democracy is closely associated with major global shifts, which have been accelerated by the global financial crisis of 2008, with its dislocating effects in the established democracies of the global centre. Relative stagnation and rising problems of inequality and unemployment, coupled with additional shocks in the form of mass migration and terrorist attacks have generated fertile grounds for the rise of right-wing radical populist sentiments, which have been turned into electoral advantage by charismatic leaders. The crisis of liberal democracy is also a global phenomenon in the sense that liberal democracy has been severely challenged by the rise of strategic models of capitalism, notably its authoritarian version represented by the growing power and influence of the China-Russia coalition. Indeed, the success of the latter has served as a kind of reference for many authoritarian or hybrid regimes in a changing global context, at a time when the key Western powers appear to be losing their previous economic and moral appeal.     

The Measure of a Nation

In his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, and in several speeches in subsequent years, Enoch Powell claimed that immigration was an ‘issue of numbers’. Britain could not, he believed, accommodate a significant number of non‐white people without threatening the existence of the nation. I argue that Powell's opposition to immigration, and his numerical framing of it, rested upon his racialised conception of British, or English, nationhood. As he was shunned by political elites, Powell articulated an increasingly populist nationalism. Drawing repeated references to Britain's wartime experiences, Powell claimed that the British, or more often the English, were being attacked by an immigrant enemy without, and betrayed by an establishment enemy within. I conclude with some reflections on the similarities between Powellite nationalism and contemporary discourses about national identity during and since the European Union referendum.     

Still ‘like birds on the wire’? Freedom after neoliberalism

In this paper I suggest that we might understand some features of contemporary populism by reworking the concept of ‘authoritarian populism’ first proposed by Stuart Hall in his analysis of ‘Thatcherism’. Following a brief review of my earlier analytics of ‘governing through freedom’, I suggest that while the political movements identified by the names of Trump, Wilders, Le Pen, the Austrian Freedom Party, the True Finns etc. may be ephemeral, it is worth considering whether they are beginning to articulate a new set of rationalities and technologies for governing ‘after neoliberalism’. I analyse some key elements of these movements, the new epistemologies that they employ and the ethopolitics that they espouse, and suggest that the key operative concepts may be ‘the people’, security and control. We may still be ‘birds on the wire’ as Leonard Cohen once put it, but perhaps what we are enjoined to seek in these strategies for ‘governing liberty’ is not so much freedom but security.     

The Strength of Far-Right AfD in Eastern Germany: The East-West Divide and the Multiple Causes behind ‘Populism’

This article sheds light on one of the key developments in recent German politics and relates it to the broader debate on the electoral success of the far right. The rise of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD, Alternative for Germany) is also a story about Germany’s internal political divide three decades after reunification, as the party has roughly twice as much support in the east than in the west. The article analyses the country’s east-west divide, strongly visible in widespread sentiments of societal marginalisation among eastern Germans. The key socio-structural differences between the east and the west relate to matters of economics, migration, and representation—and provide a setting suitable to AfD strength in the east. In explaining the party’s electoral success in eastern Germany, the article echoes recent scholarship which rejects narrow explanations for the strength of ‘populism’, and instead highlights its multiple causes.     

Authoritarian populism in rural Belarus: distinction,commonalities, and projected finale

ABSTRACT

The paper inspects how agrarian debates apply to rural Belarus. Following the ‘persistence versus disappearance’ debate, it finds the moral economy alongside request for change. Pursuing the ‘adaptation versus resistance’ debate, it spots adaptability and exclusion of those failing to adapt. Here ‘lukascism’ surfaces resting on constructing the ‘other’. A rare case of agrarian populism employed by top authority, lukascism is otherwise humdrum. Proclaiming some principles of the moral economy while disregarding others, inconsistent lukascism undercuts the ‘coexistence scenario’ of households with large-scale farming. Change avoidance is a commonplace foretelling lukascism’s finale: its appeal is limited by the older generation..     

Authoritarian populism and response to COVID-19: A comparative study of the United States,India, and Brazil

As the phenomenon of populism is in the preliminary stages of exploratory research, the present study involves an empirical investigation involving a case study of the United States, India, and Brazil to examine whether a correlation exists between populism and management of COVID-19. The study adopts the ideational approach of populism as a set of ideas or discourse to review how core conceptual features of populism have impacted on management of COVID-19. The study has two main objectives: (1) to examine whether populism in the United States, India, and Brazil has determined “a populist response” to the pandemic in dealing with the health crises and (2) to explore the management of COVID-19 in the states led by right-wing populism and the commonality of populist approaches adopted in handling the health crisis. Comparing the three states' statistical data of management models, the study has argued that common populist mechanisms such as distrust for experts, contempt for institutions, and suspicion of “others” have guided the US, India, and Brazilian leadership response to COVID-19. It further argues that leadership in the United States, India, and Brazil has prevented effective management by politicizing the crisis, aggravating social polarization, and contradicting expert advice. Moreover, populist and nationalist orientation of the leadership has evaded responsibility in these states with the leadership blaming ethnicities for spreading the virus and by weakening societal solidarity.