The Myth of Social Decadence: The Golden Dawn’s Populist Nation-Statism

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the ways in which the Golden Dawn has shaped its own demand through its ideology, discourse and programmatic agenda. It examines the Golden Dawn’s nationalist solution to the Greek crisis within the framework of fascist political myths and, more specifically, the myth of social decadence. The chapter first examines fascism and the myth of social decadence from a theoretical perspective. It proceeds by contextualising the ideological components of this myth in the discourse and the programmatic agenda of the Golden Dawn by breaking down its populist nation-statism—as the key answer to the social decadence problem—into the following fascist principles: popular supremacy, paramilitarism/violence, transcendence and cleansing.