Abstract
We live in antipolitical times. Many symptoms point in this direction: the reemergence of right-wing populism in western Europe, the antistate rhetoric of the new Republican Right in the United States, the recurrent success of antipolitical establishment candidates in Latin America, the ethnic recoding of politics in the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, the widespread evidence of popular disenchantment with politics in old as well as new democracies, the tangible presence of antipolitical motives in media discourse, and the emigration of sovereignty out of politics and into societal systems of global scale. This multitude of dispersed indicators naturally falls together into a colourful mosaic of generalized antipolitics. ‘We live in antipolitical times’. Indeed this phrase is marvellous — the ideal opening of any book on antipolitics. It formulates a bold hypothesis, proclaims a new era, irradiates the air of grand theory and suggests an extraordinary capacity on the part of the author to capture the signs of our time. Let us therefore read it cautiously, with reservation. Or better, let us reformulate it.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
See G. J. Mulgan, Politics in an Antipolitical Age (Cambridge: Polity, 1994).
See, for example, H. Arendt, On Revolution (London: Penguin, 1963), pp. 19, 136;
S. Berger, ‘Politics and Antipolitics in Western Europe in the Seventies’, Daedalus, vol. 108, no. 1 (1979), pp. 27–50;
B. Crick, In Defence of Politics, 4th edn (London: Penguin, 1992), pp. 130–9;
J. Citrin, ‘Comment: The Political Relevance of Trust in Government’, The American Political Science Review, vol. 68 (1974), p. 975;
G. Konrad, Antipolitik: Mitteleuropäische Meditationen (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1985);
A. Schedler, ‘Anti-Political-Establishment Parties’, Party Politics, vol. 2, no. 3 (1996), pp. 291–312.
See, for example, N. Luhmann, Soziale Systeme (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1987), pp. 513, 626;
N. Luhmann, Die Wirtschaft der Gesellschaft (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1987), pp. 140–3, 150;
N. Luhmann, Paradigm Lost: Uber die ethische Reflexion der Moral (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1990), pp. 23–4.
See, for example, P. Bourdieu, Sozialer Sinn: Kritik der theoretischen Vernunft (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1987), p. 201.
See J. M. Buchanan, ‘Rent Seeking and Profit Seeking’, in J. M. Buchanan, R. D. Tollison and G. Tullbck (eds), Toward a Theory of the Rent-Seeking Society (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1980), pp. 3–15.
See H. Arendt, Was ist Politik? (München and Zürich: Piper, 1993), pp. 32–5;
W. D. Narr, ‘Politische Theorie wofür?’, Osterreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, vol. 18, no. 1 (1989), p. 78.
See, for example, I. Wallerstein, The Modern World-System (New York: Academic Press, 1974).
See, for example, U. Beck, Die Erfindung des Politischen (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1993);
T. Meyer, Die Transformation des Politischen (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1994).
See, for example, A. Przeworski, ‘The Neoliberal Fallacy’, in L. Diamond and M. F. Plattner (eds), Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy Revisited (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), pp. 39–53.
See D. Easton, A Systems Analysis of Political Life (New York: Wiley, 1965);
H. Willke, Ironie des Staates (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1992), p. 45; Wimmer, op. cit.
See, for example, M. Weber, ‘Politik als Beruf’, 5th edn, in M. Weber, Gesammelte Politische Schrifien, (ed.) Johannes Winckelmann (Tübingen: Mohr, 1988), p. 506.
T. Hobbes, Leviathan (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1970), chap. 13.
See, for example, J. Habermas, Faktizität und Geltung (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1992), p. 537.
See J. Dryzek, Discursive Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990);
J. Fishkin, Democracy and Deliberation (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1991); Habermas, op. cit.; Meyer, op. cit.
S. M. Lipset and S. Rokkan, ‘Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments: An Introduction’, in S. M. Lipset and S. Rokkan (eds), Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives (New York and London: Free Press, 1967), pp. 1–64.
J. Habermas, Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns, 2 volumes (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1982).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1997 Andreas Schedler
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schedler, A. (1997). Introduction: Antipolitics — Closing and Colonizing the Public Sphere. In: Schedler, A. (eds) The End of Politics?. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25251-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25251-0_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-67403-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-25251-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)