Radicalism and Indifference : Memory Transmission, Political Formation and Modernization in Hungary and Europe

TitleRadicalism and Indifference : Memory Transmission, Political Formation and Modernization in Hungary and Europe
Publication TypeBook
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsDomonkos Sik
PublisherPeter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
CityFrankfurt am Main
ISBN Number978-3-631-67417-8
Abstract

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.

Short TitleRadicalism and Indifference