It's weirdly appropriate that as the contemporary Elite continually talk up the 'turnip ghost' of the Far Right and invoke dubious parallels with the 1930's that their response to Populism should be informed by the experiences of interwar Europe. What is startling is that a Liberal political theorists (Lowenstein) could have been so instrumental in his embrace of the same authoritarian methods we would come to associate with Totalitarianism. However the danger that the Elite would start banning parties would come with the problem of how today's Elite could legitimate itself if it's unwilling to engage with growing parts of the electorate. The short term solution of banning populist parties and demonising their support base cannot resolve the problems unchecked migration would bring. It would seem that this would be the response of political exhaustion, and the mark of societies whose ruling elites have lost any positive vision of the future, where citizens are merely a collection of problems to be managed.
Great historical and political insights. The development of undemocratic politics by the EU bureaucracy shows their inability to defend the Enlightenment project as a principle. In the UK the testing cases are also the call to ban the anti-Israel pro-Palestinian “hate marches” and anti-semitism imagery and chants.
Maybe I'll explore the question of the dangers represented by the banning impulse
You are right their big problem is their lack of legitimacy - which they cannot solve anytime soon
Thanks for your support Don.
It's weirdly appropriate that as the contemporary Elite continually talk up the 'turnip ghost' of the Far Right and invoke dubious parallels with the 1930's that their response to Populism should be informed by the experiences of interwar Europe. What is startling is that a Liberal political theorists (Lowenstein) could have been so instrumental in his embrace of the same authoritarian methods we would come to associate with Totalitarianism. However the danger that the Elite would start banning parties would come with the problem of how today's Elite could legitimate itself if it's unwilling to engage with growing parts of the electorate. The short term solution of banning populist parties and demonising their support base cannot resolve the problems unchecked migration would bring. It would seem that this would be the response of political exhaustion, and the mark of societies whose ruling elites have lost any positive vision of the future, where citizens are merely a collection of problems to be managed.
Great historical and political insights. The development of undemocratic politics by the EU bureaucracy shows their inability to defend the Enlightenment project as a principle. In the UK the testing cases are also the call to ban the anti-Israel pro-Palestinian “hate marches” and anti-semitism imagery and chants.
exellent and important article to inform a strategy for change from below, maybe.