Abstract
The article interprets the crisis of liberal democracy in the 21st century as the result of an ongoing, dual revolution of dignity. One such revolution is the work of “humanist outliers”: small groups and individuals dedicated to compassionate social emancipation. Thus anti-authoritarian revolutions like that of Solidarity in Poland (1980–81) succeed in large part thanks to cultural and political innovations springing from the work of such small groups. However, the humanist revolution of dignity – featuring altruism and cooperation – has its “tribal doppelgänger”: a twin revolution that strives to reclaim national dignity and pride at the price of submission to authoritarian rule.
Highlights
There have been numerous interpretations as to why countries like Poland – which was the locus of the greatest anti-authoritarian revolution in Europe between 1980 and 1989 – have embraced the ‘new authoritarianism’ in the second decade of the 21st century
In a sociological study of a small Polish city that had overwhelmingly voted for the Law and Justice ‘neo-authoritarians’, the conclusion was that the majority that had voted for the PIS were not paupers or losers, but members of the middle class who did not care about politics: they were anxious to preserve their positions and reclaim “national security and pride”
Aware of the ongoing philosophical and religious controversy around the concept of humanism,[18] I define it, broadly, as a worldview that emphasizes the indelible value of humans, cherishes altruism and cooperation, and demands respect for the Other: a mindset which we find not just in the Western Renaissance and Enlightenment but in the cultural archives of numerous traditions
Summary
There have been numerous interpretations as to why countries like Poland – which was the locus of the greatest anti-authoritarian revolution in Europe between 1980 and 1989 – have embraced the ‘new authoritarianism’ in the second decade of the 21st century. To move to a broader context, Francis Fukuyama interprets the populist turn not as limited to Orban’s Hungary or Kaczyński’s Poland, but as rife in a number of societies, from Trumpian America to Modi’s India. This regression, Fukuyama argues, is partly a social response to economic and technological shifts of globalization, and partly due to what he calls the ‘rise of identity politics’.7. In many cases, they are anchored in resentment and hostility to the Other
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