Conservative Nationalism Research Articles

COLONIALISMO DUAL E FORMAÇÃO DO ESTADO NACIONAL: O CASO SUL-AFRICANO

Desde a colonização holandesa no Cabo, o espaço sul-africano passou a constituir um efetivo ponto geoestratégico, inicialmente ancorado no mercantilismo da metrópole, e posteriormente, com a chegada britânica, realiza um processo de abertura comercial e de expansiva colonização territorial de europeus e também populações asiáticas afiançadas pelos ingleses. Após duas guerras internas, a África do Sul chega ao início do século XX a um entendimento político, formando a União Sul-Africana, que abre espaço, após a Segunda Guerra Mundial, para a ascensão de um regime nacionalista conservador, responsável pelo recrudescimento da segregação racial já vigente. Reconhecido bastião anticomunista no meridional africano, a África do Sul desenvolve no século XX capacidades militares e uma economia nacional de mercado sem equiparação no continente todo. Enquanto afirma seu projeto nacional, o país encontra-se limitado pelo crescente descrédito da comunidade internacional, que, através da ONU e da OEA, impõe embargos e boicotes ao governo sul-africano.

To revise or not to revise: the ‘peace constitution’, pro-revision movement, and Japan's national identity

ABSTRACTWhy do conservative nationalists in Japan continuously seek to revise the constitution despite the past failures, and what is the likelihood of successful revision and its impact on Japan's norm of pacifism and its use of force? The article offers an analytical framework for the issue based on national pride and national security, and argues that the ‘revisionists’ seek to create a new national identity, one that infuses a greater sense of national pride among the public and enables the exercise of collective self-defense, thereby removing Japan's postwar psychological and institutional limitations on nationalism and military activities. The LDP's 2012 draft is most explicit and ambitious in this regard, with the current revision attempt under Abe having the highest chance of success since the 1950s. Successful revision would significantly expand Japan's security activities, particularly within the framework of the US–Japan Security Alliance, and entail the end of Japan's unique postwar institutionalized pacifism, although the norm of pacifism will linger on as a constitutional principle. For a smoother return to the international military scene, the Japanese government must distance itself from historical revisionism and utilize its enhanced military role to promote regional public goods rather than merely protecting its narrow national interests.

Japan's Return to Great Power Politics: Abe's Restoration

Japan's Return to Great Power Politics:Abe's Restoration Kenneth B. Pyle (bio) keywords japan, shinzo abe, foreign policy, U.S.-Japan alliance [End Page 69] executive summary This essay explains how Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is engineering a seismic shift in Japan's foreign policy from a postwar position of dependence and subordination in the U.S.-led order to a proactive and independent role, which in the uncertain regional environment is likely to gain increasing popular support. main argument After more than 70 years of subordination in the U.S.-led world order, Japan is pulling free from its self-binding constraints and restoring an activist foreign policy not seen since 1945. Coming to power with a surge of conservative nationalist support in the Liberal Democratic Party, Abe has engineered Japan's return to great-power politics. He has achieved a historic reinterpretation of the constitution to permit collective self-defense, ended the ban on arms exports and other self-binding policies, and pressed for new offensive military capacity, all of which have made possible a much more cohesive and integrated U.S.-Japan alliance. Although Abe and the policy elite have had to override public opposition in returning Japan to this activist role, in such circumstances of transition in the international order, Japan has historically experienced rapid swings in geopolitical position. With the growing uncertainty of regional conditions, we should not be surprised if the pacifist identity that postwar generations have long embraced gives way and we see changes in the prolonged resistance of the Japanese public to revision of the constitution and to an activist and assertive foreign policy. policy implications • Japan will closely weigh the reliability of U.S. assurances and the future direction of U.S. policy in Asia, especially as they relate to the management of the nuclear threat from North Korea and to Japanese interests vis-à-vis China. • Japan's immediate priority will be to strengthen its alignment with the U.S., but in the longer term it will increasingly move toward a more independent foreign policy that offers greater autonomy and room to adjust to its perception of the shifting regional balance of power. • Although Abe appears likely to remain in office until 2021, even should his term be shortened, his policies now have a momentum that will be very difficult to reverse. These policies are supported by all likely LDP candidates to succeed him, and the political opposition is weaker than at any time in the postwar period. [End Page 70] In 2018, Japan is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its modern revolution, the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The nature of a country's modern revolution illuminates a great deal about the national character, the strategic principles, and the logic of a people. Just as 1776 tells Americans so much about ourselves—the ideals and purposes that we hold central—so the Meiji Restoration reveals much about the nature and purpose of modern Japan. The restoration was not a class upheaval proclaiming new values. Rather, it was a conservative nationalist revolution, carried out "from above" by a party within the old samurai elite and driven by the dangers posed by the Western imperial powers. Its purpose was to strengthen Japan, adapt to the changes in the external environment, restore the independence that was infringed by the West, and bring Japan into the company of the great powers. Over the next two decades, borrowing broadly from the Western powers, the Meiji Restoration achieved one of the most remarkable institutional innovations in world history: Japan became Asia's first rising power. This formative experience of Japan's entry into the modern world established a strategic style of realism and pragmatism in response to shifts in the international system. In the prime ministership of Shinzo Abe, we are witnessing a similar accommodation to changes in the international system. Like the Meiji Restoration—albeit on a more limited historical scale—Abe is engineering a foreign policy revolution carried out from above by a conservative elite. When his cabinet in 2014 approved a radical reinterpretation of the constitution to allow collective self-defense, Abe reportedly told leaders of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP...

Analyzing the Rise of Right-Wing Nationalism and Its Impact on US Foreign Policy

The new regime after the 2016 General Election and its advisors are working to establish a white nationalist government in the United States. If their efforts are fruitful, the US and the world as a whole face an unpredictable future. However, a small degree of optimism exists as the process of regime transformation is in its formative phase and the consequences are yet to become apparent. Comprehending the foundation of this precarious course can contribute to the formulation of measures that can facilitate resistance to it, and promote the path to a progressive future. It is widely acknowledged that the rise of right-wing nationalism is not restricted in the US alone. Instead, nations such as Britain, Poland, and Russia have seen an emergence of politics centered on Conservative populism. The core premises of these Right-Wing movements underscore the importance of patriotism, take advantage of the public’s reservations about minority races and denominations. Additionally, White nationalists are convinced that they can resolve existing economic challenges.This paper focuses on how Right-wing nationalists infiltrated mainstream American politics to facilitate the election of an individual who subscribes to their principles in Donald Trump. In this case, the essay details the core factors that contributed to the rise of Conservative nationalists in the country. Furthermore, the essay assesses how Trump's White nationalist background is influencing his and the US' foreign policy. In this context, the paper explores Donald Trump’s behavior on the international stage and his interactions with other world leaders. The paper concludes that Trump’s White nationalist agenda is focused on altering the US foreign policy such that it promotes the Right-wing populism in Europe and supports despots in other parts of the world who can enter bilateral agreements that seek to advance US interests abroad.

Political and Religious Contributions in Economic Development

The great conclusion of this paper is to prove the synergy between religion and politics in the economic development of a State. The more polarized the system of ethical-religious and political beliefs, the more help the economic development of a State. Based on the discourse on the religion and politics of the author in the direction of Beng-Lan Goh (2006), Wilson Erin K (2014), and Melleuish Gregory (2014) explaining the ideology of the state as an alternative logic forming religious symbolism from capitalist exploitation or commoditization, the best civilian politics in serving the people's welfare by rejecting the dichotomy of morality and interest systems, as well as religious and political understanding limits the capacity of religious clerics and actors in their significant influence on religious actions and rituals to the political sphere that greatly affects economic growth. The authors oppose the opinions of Bin Hassan (2007), San Juan (2011), Martinelli (2013) and Faux Jeff (2004) explaining that Effects of Islamic revival around the world in the competition of political power that directly and indirectly contribute to the development of Islam in politics, the United States and transnational geopolitical interests as a consequence of the contradiction between emerging and conservative nationalist impulses, the United States Congress that has successfully influenced key decisions on regulatory policy, has so far weakened existing systems and American economic politics flourish across borders, the same that happens in today's globalized economy. The data used in this paper comes from secondary data obtained from books, magazines, the Internet and other documentation relating to the study of the problems and this paper. This writing is descriptive qualitative with the approach of the research library.

Los falsos retratos del “teatro selecto”: la canonización visual de dramaturgos barrocos por la recepción nacionalista decimonónica

En el segundo y tercer tomo de la colección Teatro selecto, antiguo y moderno, nacional y extranjero (1867, y editada por Francisco de Orellana) aparecieron siete ilustraciones de dramaturgos áureos, obras de Tomás Padró. Mientras que los rasgos de Solís y de Moreto aparecían fieles a los retratos contemporáneos de los autores, los de Ruiz de Alarcón, Rojas Zorrilla, Pérez de Montalbán, Zamora y Cañizares estaban trazados por un mismo y sospechoso patrón. Este trabajo pretende estudiar la canonización e idea¬lización visual del escritor áureo en el siglo XIX, producto de la ideología nacionalista conservadora del periodo y reflejo de la recepción decimonónica de la literatura áurea. https://doi.org/10.17398/2660-7301.41.27

Two Years of “Making America Great Again”

The utility of “current history” often proves limited in the long run. In the meantime, immediate reports, like Bob Woodward's 2018 book, Fear: Trump in the White House, can be insightful. Despite Woodward's Watergate-tested “deep background” style of reporting, he contextualizes many of the currents running through the populist turn in the United States in the 2010 national midterm elections, which legitimized the key conservative nationalist themes woven into Donald J. Trump's unyielding assault on both the Democratic and Republican parties for failing to protect American jobs, to stop illegal immigration, and to win the war against radical Islamic terrorism…

The Political Economy of Economic Conservatism in India: From Moral Economy to Pro-business Nationalism

Economic conservatism in India today is associated with the BJP’s embrace of markets and competition. This article argues that conservatism within the nationalist movement was founded on rejecting both the market and the planned economy, embracing instead ‘moral economy’ principles of economic life guided by social norms, and development founded on small-scale craft production. After independence, conservative nationalists, while acknowledging the need to enhance state power through industrial growth, protected the moral economies of craft-based and agrarian production. But as the Congress party fractured, farmers’ movements asserted interests in market-based agricultural transformation and liberalization shifted the issue space of economic debate, new pro-business conservatives presented a new vision based on enhancing national wealth and strength through capitalist enterprise.

Thinking through Transition: Authoritarian Pasts, and Intellectual History in East Central Europe after 1989 by Piotr (eds) Kopeček, Michal and Wciślik Po Devětaosmdesátém: rozpomínání a přemítání by Petr Pithart (review)

SEER, 95, 4, OCTOBER 2017 792 Nevertheless, the sheer wealth of information and immersion in primary sources make this book an essential companion for any scholar who wishes to take Havel seriously as a thinker, artist and political actor. Northwestern University Andrew Roberts Kopeček, Michal and Wciślik, Piotr (eds). Thinking through Transition: Authoritarian Pasts, and Intellectual History in East Central Europe after 1989. CEU Press, Budapest and New York, 2015. vii + 599 pp. Notes. Index.£49.00: €58.00: $75.00. Pithart, Petr. Po Devětaosmdesátém: rozpomínání a přemítání. Academia, Prague, 2016. 490 pp. Illustrations. Index. Kč450.00. Social science disciplines as diverse as political science and anthropology were quick to incorporate East Central Europe (ECE) into existing international academic agendas following the collapse of Communism in 1989. Mainstream political scientists and liberal economists saw the region through the lens of comparative democratization theory or standard recipes for economic reform. Left-leaning critics in sociology and political economy, while more sensitive to historical context and path dependency, over-emphasized macro-structures and sometimes assimilated ECE too easily — and too abstractly — into global critiques of neo-liberalism. Both groups were, Kopeček and Wciślik suggest in their introduction to Thinking through Transition, burdened by ‘a monist historicalimaginationinwhichpoliticalmodernityhadasinglegoal,acapitalist liberal democracy composed of the advanced post-industrial countries of the West’ (p. 11), differing only in how social-democratic they hoped ECE’s endpoint would be and how optimistic they were that it could be achieved. A side effect of the integration was a loss of interest in home-grown ECE understandings of politics and a rich vein of local political thought. There is, Kopeček and Wciślik argue, space for a ‘possible future intellectual history’ (p. 2) of ECE examining ‘the transfer and circulation of ideas from a bottomup perspective’ (p. 17), focusing on specific contexts but retaining a broad sense of regional commonalties. It is this goal that their collection sets out to address. The book is organized into sections on liberalism, conservatism, populism, the new left and the politics of memory, with most chapters taking the form of country-specific studies. In geographical terms the book focuses on the Visegrad states, although there are chapters on Romanian populism and feminist assessments on democracy in Croatia and Serbia. In many ways, however, the issue that most unites the volume’s contributions is how the pursuit of democracy and liberalism went wrong in a region where REVIEWS 793 the pro-Western post-1989 liberal consensus came increasingly under strain. Indeed, they speculate that post-1989 democracy in ECE may yet come to be seen as an interregnum between periods of authoritarianism, much in the way that the 1920s and 1930s are seen as the ‘interwar’ period. Moreover, many of the debates about liberalism and illiberalism, history and national identity that inform contemporary debates were present, at least embryonically, in the intelligentsia debates of the late Communist period. ECE’s liberal traditions, for example, have always been defined by fear of various forms of authoritarianism, collectivism and populism. As Ferenc Laczó and Piotr Wciślik relate in respective chapters on Hungary and Poland, although diverse in their beliefs, liberals in the late Communist era and the early 1990s were already almost as fearful of the authoritarian (or even ‘totalitarian’) potential of national conservative opposition as they were of the declining, Communist regimes and their successor parties. Even in the Czech Republic, where conservative nationalist traditions were weakest, liberalism, argues Milan Znoj, emerged in diminished and skewed forms: the economistic market-centred neo-liberalism of Václav Klaus and the civil society-focused ‘moral populism’ of Václav Havel. Moreover, as Paul Blokker’s chapter relates, liberal ‘legal constitutionalism’ focusingonentrenchedindividualrightsisfarfromthedominantconstitutional narrative in ECE. An alternative, ‘communitarian’ framing of democratic and market institutions which stresses the underpinning of national community is both intellectually available — and already embodied in aspects of the Romanian and Slovak constitutions, as well as in Hungary’s 2011 constitution passed by the conservative Fidesz in the wake of his landslide election victory in 2010. Conservative traditions also appear problematic. As Rafal Matya’s study of Poland illustrates, by...

Political Parties and Women’s Rights in Turkey

Political parties are important political actors, but they are seldom studied in relation to human rights. This article examines the human rights discourse of political parties in Turkey by focusing on women’s rights. The content analysis of party programmes issued by major political parties between 1923 and 2007 reveals significant differences and changes in parties’ approach to women, ranging from no mentioning of women to addressing women’s issues from a feminist perspective. Women’s rights and issues, once neglected practically by all political parties, have gained attention during the last few decades, largely due to women’s activism. While conservative, religious, and Turkish nationalist parties started to display a dualist approach that combines traditionalism with gender equality, social democrat, socialist, and pro-Kurdish parties increasingly employ feminist terminology and analysis.

Hurrah Revolutionaries: The Polish Canadian Communist Movement, 1918–1948 by Patryk Polec

Hurrah Revolutionaries: The Polish Canadian Communist Movement, 1918-1948, by Patryk Polec. Montreal & Kingston, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015. xxii, 301 pp. $34.95 Cdn (paper). Patryk Polec has written a very interesting book that tells many stories simultaneously. Hurrah Revolutionaries is about one part of the radical left in Canada during the first half of the twentieth century. It is also a history of Polish immigration to Canada, of Polish immigrants' political, cultural and social lives, and of the changing relationship between nationalist identity and political ideology. Polec's specific focus within this ambitious project is the Polish Communist movement in Canada--first known as the Polish Workers' and Farmers' Association when it was first established in Winnipeg in 1931, and then as the Polish People's Association in 1936 when the name was changed. Polec explores the internal workings of Polish Communists in Canada and highlights their priorities, strategies, and accomplishments, all while contextualizing Polish-Canadian Communist activism in terms of broader Canadian social and political history. What Polec shows very clearly is how flexible and adaptable Polish communists were and how shrewdly they used traditional symbols of Polish patriotism and culture to normalize their movement and to thereby gain adherents. Polec thus provides us with a picture of a movement that at various points from the 1920s through to the early postwar years was genuinely popular. In 1919 there were approximately 50,000 Poles in Canada, and just over a decade later this number had risen to 150,000. About 4,000 to 5,000 of these Polish Canadians were Communists in the late 1930s, making the Communists comparable in size to the two largest non-Communist Polish organizations that operated in Canada at the same time (the Federation of Polish Societies in Canada and the Polish Alliance of Canada). The popularity of Polish Communism is further reflected in the fact that members operated across Canada; no other group was quite so successful in establishing a national presence. Highlighting the relative popularity of the Communists is perhaps Polec's greatest contribution with this book. He provides a fresh perspective on what we know about Polish immigrant experiences in Canada by showing that Polish Communists were not always the pariahs of the Cold War era, and that Poles in Canada were never a homogenous collective. Instead, Polish radicals existed alongside conservative nationalist Polish-Catholic immigrants; before World War II Communism formed a legitimate choice for Polish immigrants. Polish nationalism, it seems, was not the only--or the most important--identity that Poles adopted. Polec builds his argument through ten relatively short chapters. …

Discourse of decency: white nationalists, white antiracists, and the criminality of color

Contemporary research on white racial attitudes on race and crime reflect a grouping of opinions on a traditional liberal-conservative scale. These two groupings reflect what sociologists and political scientists call ‘issue constraint’ or a ‘clustering’ of ideas into a specific ideological worldview. Many now argue this gulf is growing; a white ‘culture war’ that many interpret as evidence of the increasing fracturing and political bifurcation of white racial identities over ‘hot button’ topics like race and crime. While a substantial literature on race and crime finds white racial attitudes to vary by educational level and political orientation, we know less about shared understandings of crime and race in relation to the processes of white racial identity formation. Rather than view attitudinal statements on race and crime as accurate reflections of essential different and static white racial political positions or ideological orientations, additional scholarship can examine discourse on crime and race as constitutive of the white identities that wield them. Drawing from an ethnographic study with conservative white nationalists and liberal white antiracists, this paper addresses the following question: what is the relationship between discourse on crime and race and the ongoing process of white racial identity formation?

'The holy property of the entirety of the people': The Struggle for the 'German Forest' in Prussia, 1871-1914

Abstract During the nineteenth century, German intellectuals articulated the notion that the nation's identity and social peace were rooted in public access to its forests. In the late nineteenth century, however, the Prussian state sought to tighten property laws, allowing landowners to exert more control over their property and exclude interlopers. First liberals and Catholics, then conservative agrarian reformers and radical nationalists, responded with hostility to these efforts, challenging landowning elites. Whereas the romanticisation of the 'German forest' has long been seen as an expression of landowners' efforts to manipulate national sentiment, these developments illustrate the complicated relationship between nature and nation in the late nineteenth century.

Conservative Ideological Resurgence, Nationalist Rallying, and Students: The German Burschenschaft and Antisemitism, 1890-1900

Conservative Ideological Resurgence, Nationalist Rallying, and Students: The German Burschenschaft and Antisemitism, 1890-1900

Turkey at a Tipping Point

By pulling the levers of suspicion and social polarization, Erdoğan appeals to the conservative nationalist core of his supporters, but he is out of touch with a large part of the population.

España fuera de España. El patriotismo español en la emigración argentina: una aproximación

During the first third of the 20th century, Spanish migrants in Argentina prompted, from specific areas of civil society and the public sphere, corporate identity for political purposes. It was a residual patriotism and condemned from the outset. It was activated in specific circumstances and in relation to the local policies projected towards the collective migratory, the Spanish politics, and recognition of shared sociopolitical and cultural genealogies. From the perspective of cultural history of the policy, and based on primary and secondary sources, this article discusses about built imaginaries, social mobilization generated and results between 1885 and 1920. During that time, from distance, migrants also built ideas about Spain and drawn up national myths in the cultural version of liberalism that eventually led to a conservative nationalist, catholic and –at times– fascist.

Switzerland and the EU: the puzzling effects of Europeanisation without institutionalisation

Switzerland is not a member of the EU and in 1992 refused to join the European Economic Area (EEA) treaty in a popular vote. A conservative majority preferred to keep utmost national autonomy, and consequently, relations between the EU and Switzerland are regulated by a series of bilateral treaties. This process of Europeanisation without institutionalisation has led to profound changes of Swiss politics over the last two decades. While many effects of economic liberalisation and internationalisation are similar to those found in EU countries, some specific problems like the acceleration of immigration present rising social conflict. Social cleavages between urban and rural regions, and between capital and labour are deepening. The continuous rise of the conservative nationalist Swiss People's Party and the growing polarisation between the political Right and Left have put the traditional political culture of accommodation and power sharing at risk. Twenty years after the No-vote on the EEA-treaty, Switzerland is a divided country. Why do Swiss politicians still practice consensus democracy, and what does the divide mean for the future relations between the EU and Switzerland?

Reactions to Futurism in Galicia, 1916–1936

This paper approaches the reception of Futurism in Galicia in the period between 1916 and 1936. In the emerging literary field of Galicia, an intense debate was being held about the national cultural identity under the umbrella of an overarching centralist Spanish State. Under the dominant influence of Galician nationalism, literary issues were strongly conditioned by the ideological field. One of the most discussed subjects, in this context, was the appropriateness of the introduction of avant-garde art and literature. The conservative nationalist group, known as the Xeracion Nos, promoted the creation of a literary discourse that voiced a ‘Galician essence’. Nature, folklore, nostalgia, national sentiment and history were some of the main features of this repertoire. In opposition to this, the avant-garde movements, as foreign trends, were seen as a threat to the Galician identity. The countertendency to this nationalist orthodoxy was the position of the Xeracion de 1925. These young writers were eager to develop a contemporary discourse in Galicia and in the Galician language, which meant that the repertoire of the avant-garde was an appealing reference to them. Although Futurism did not have a decisive influence on Galician literature and art, the movement regularly featured as a reference point in articles and letters of the intellectual class. In this essay I shall mainly focus on the writings of two members of the Xeracion Nos, Vicente Risco and Alfonso R. Castelao, and of a member of the Xeracion de 1925, Manuel Antonio.

Suleyman the Magnificent in the Imagination of Conservative Nationalist: A Reading on Reactions to Muhteşem Yüzyıl

Suleyman the Magnificent in the Imagination of Conservative Nationalist: A Reading on Reactions to Muhteşem Yüzyıl

What Happened to the Polish Multitude?: Representation of Working People in Polish Postcommunist Cinema

To my mind, 1989 corresponds to 1968. While 1968 had broken down walls that closed our society, 1989 broke down wall that defended socialism, from world market. -Antonio Negri1 Some of main changes brought about by collapse of communism were related to work. Capitalism replaced communism and, with that, free market replaced a regulated, centrally planned economy, post- Fordism replaced Fordism, and flexible employment and unemployment replaced jobs for life. However, surprisingly few Polish films made after 1989 put at center of their discourse question of work, career, class, and social advancement. Equally, little has been written on this subject. I address this gap in research by examining three Polish films made after 1989: Psy/Dogs (1992), directed by Wladyslaw Pasikowski; Komornik/Bailiff(2005), directed by Feliks Falk; and Silesia, directed by Anna Kazejak- Dawid, which is first part in an omnibus film Oda do radosci/Ode to Joy (2005), of which two remaining parts were directed by Jan Komasa and Maciej Migas. The central issue of my discussion is how situation of working people, as represented in these films, compares to that of workers in Polish films made in 1970s, last de cade before communism collapsed. Before I discuss Dogs, Bailiff, and Silesia, I characterize Cinema of Moral Concern of 1970s, last distinctive paradigm of Polish cinema. My main conceptual tool to describe similarities and differences pertaining to repre sen ta tion of work in these two cinematic paradigms is multitude, borrowed from books by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, who transplanted it to postmodern discourse on work from writings of Hobbes and Spinoza.2 Multitude can be understood as a global citizens' movement against various forms of oppressions, including economic exploitation. Multitude conveys an idea that certain conditions, people belonging to different social classes might collaborate to overturn what Hardt and Negri call an Empire: an oppressive po liti cal system that spreads across national borders. Hardt and Negri use to describe po liti cal, social, and cultural conditions in late capitalist world, but this concept also adequately captures situation late socialism. The Solidarity movement in Poland, which spread to practically whole of Eastern Bloc and resulted in its collapse, was, in my view, perfect embodiment of multitude. As Slavoj Zizek notes, it was a po liti cal alliance between many divergent and potentially antagonistic positions, including conservative nationalists, business- oriented individuals, Catholic Church, farmers, artists, intellectuals, workers, and old disillusioned leftists. It happened, as Zizek puts it, under banner of a signifier which stands, as it were, on very border which separates po liti cal form from pre- political, and 'Solidarity' was perfect candidate: it is po liti cally operative as designating 'simple' and 'fundamental' unity of human beings which should link them beyond po liti cal differences.3 Of course, Solidarity as multitude was possible because of nearly universal hatred of Soviet Empire in Poland and despite numerous divisions existing in Polish society, between and inside social classes, and certain seeming advantages of living communist system. Hardt and Negri purposefully play down differences between those who make up multitude because unity in diversity is at core of this concept. The most important relation for them is that between multitude and Empire. I am, however, as interested in relation between those who belong to these social forms as between multitude (real and potential) and Empire. For this reason, I employ Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of capital, field, and habitus. At heart of these concepts is a conviction that social world should be considered in terms of relations, which are constantly shifting: the real is relational. …