Illiberalism
Historically, the “illiberal” adjective has been mostly applied to personal attitudes, behaviors and practices “unworthy of a free man”, such as lack of generosity, lack of sophisticated culture, intolerance, narrow-mindedness, meanness.[1] Lord Chesterfield, for example, wrote that “Whenever you write Latin, remember that every word or phrase which you make use of, but cannot find in Caesar, Cicero, Livy, Horace, Virgil; and Ovid, is bad, illiberal Latin”[2]
Contemporary usage indicates an opposition to liberalism or liberal democracy. Fritz Stern, a historian of Germany, understood by illiberalism anti-democratic mentality and anti-democratic practices such as suffrage restrictions.[3]
Marlene Laruelle defines illiberalism as a backlash against today’s liberalism. According to her, illiberalism is “majoritarian, nation-centric or sovereigntist, favouring traditional hierarchies and cultural homogeneity”, calling for “a shift from politics to culture and is post-post-modern in its claims of rootedness in an age of globalization”.[4]
Zsolt Enyedi defines illiberalism as opposition to the main principles of liberal democracy: limited government, open society and state neutrality. He distinguishes between authoritarian, populist, traditionalist, religious, paternalist, libertarian, nativist-nationalist, materialist and left-wing varieties.[5]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Rosenblatt, Helena (2021). The history of illiberalism. In Routledge handbook of illiberalism (pp. 16-32). Routledge.
- ^ Chesterfield, L. (2008). Lord Chesterfield's letters. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Stern, Fritz. 1972. The Failure of Illiberalism: Essays on the Political Culture of Modern Germany. New York: Knopf.
- ^ Laruelle, Marlene. "Illiberalism: A conceptual introduction." East European Politics 38.2 (2022): 303-327.
- ^ Enyedi, Zsolt (2024). Concept and Varieties of Illiberalism. Politics and Governance, 12, Article 8521, https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.8521