Anti-politics and the Left
Anti-politics and the Left
There are many kinds of politics, but if politics describes those institutions by which plural societies achieve collective and binding decisions (Crick 1962), then anti-politics describes negative feeling towards those institutions – including politicians, parties, councils, parliaments, and governments. This negativity is targeted towards politicians and parties in general, as opposed to particular politicians or parties (which, of course, would not be quite such a generalised concern). It is targeted towards the institutions of representative democracy and the way they currently work, as opposed to the idea of democracy itself (for which there remains widespread support). Given that most theories of democracy assume a certain amount of scepticism among citizens regarding politicians and the organisations through which they operate (Held 2006), anti-politics describes a level of negativity beyond such a healthy scepticism: an unhealthy cynicism. It also describes a rather active negativity, often deeply felt, as opposed to the passive indifference often discussed under the heading of ‘apathy’.
9-18
Clarke, Nick
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Jennings, Will
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Moss, Jonathan
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Stoker, Gerry
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June 2016
Clarke, Nick
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Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7
Moss, Jonathan
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Stoker, Gerry
209ba619-6a65-4bc1-9235-cba0d826bfd9
Clarke, Nick, Jennings, Will, Moss, Jonathan and Stoker, Gerry
(2016)
Anti-politics and the Left.
Renewal, 24 (2), .
Abstract
There are many kinds of politics, but if politics describes those institutions by which plural societies achieve collective and binding decisions (Crick 1962), then anti-politics describes negative feeling towards those institutions – including politicians, parties, councils, parliaments, and governments. This negativity is targeted towards politicians and parties in general, as opposed to particular politicians or parties (which, of course, would not be quite such a generalised concern). It is targeted towards the institutions of representative democracy and the way they currently work, as opposed to the idea of democracy itself (for which there remains widespread support). Given that most theories of democracy assume a certain amount of scepticism among citizens regarding politicians and the organisations through which they operate (Held 2006), anti-politics describes a level of negativity beyond such a healthy scepticism: an unhealthy cynicism. It also describes a rather active negativity, often deeply felt, as opposed to the passive indifference often discussed under the heading of ‘apathy’.
Text
ClarkeJenningsMossStoker_Renewal_Preprint.pdf
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 12 April 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 1 June 2016
Published date: June 2016
Organisations:
Politics & International Relations, Geography & Environment
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 395047
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/395047
ISSN: 0968-252X
PURE UUID: 6452e3b5-7cba-4fb7-8c25-ec1249d16804
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Date deposited: 26 May 2016 07:56
Last modified: 23 Feb 2023 05:39
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Contributors
Author:
Jonathan Moss
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