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  1. Home
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  3. Post-Imperial Democracies
  • Cited by 59
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2012
Print publication year:
2010
Online ISBN:
9780511781391
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511781391
Subjects:
Area Studies, Twentieth Century European History, History, European Studies, Politics and International Relations, Comparative Politics
Series:
Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics
Information

Book description

This book examines the causal impact of ideology through a comparative-historical analysis of three cases of 'post-imperial democracy': the early Third Republic in France (1870–86); the Weimar Republic in Germany (1918–34); and post-Soviet Russia (1992–2008). Hanson argues that political ideologies are typically necessary for the mobilization of enduring, independent national party organizations in uncertain democracies. By presenting an explicit and desirable picture of the political future, successful ideologues induce individuals to embrace a long-run strategy of cooperation with other converts. When enough new converts cooperate in this way, it enables sustained collective action to defend and extend party power. Successful party ideologies thus have the character of self-fulfilling prophecies: by portraying the future polity as one organized to serve the interests of those loyal to specific ideological principles, they help to bring political organizations centered on these principles into being.

Reviews

'In many respects, Stephen E. Hanson's intellectually provocative and conceptually innovative study is an attempt to refute the argument … that ideology would fade away in our post-industrial, postmodern, post-utopian and post-historical age.'

Source: The Times Literary Supplement

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