Flinders Matthew, Hinterleitner Markus
Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
LMU Munich, Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science, Munich, Germany.
Society. 2022;59(6):672-681. doi: 10.1007/s12115-022-00686-z. Epub 2022 Mar 14.
As a vast literature on political disaffection, populism, "pitchfork politics," and the emergence of an "age of anger" testifies, the nature of democratic politics and the socio-political context in which it operates appear to have shifted sharply during the last decade. This is reflected in the rise of challenger parties, the election of unorthodox politicians, and widespread concern regarding the "crisis," "death," or "end" of democracy. Existing analyses have, however, understandably adopted a conventional model of party-based representative politics as their main interpretive lens or reference point to make sense of these changes. This article adopts a far bolder position. It suggests that a new form of "grievance politics" has emerged that constitutes a distinct and novel species of representative democracy. Grievance politics is defined by the fuelling and funneling of negative emotions and various blame-based political strategies which explicitly challenge and confound many of the core principles and values that have traditionally underpinned conventional conceptions of party politics. It is the tension between party politics and grievance politics-and their contemporary co-existence as competing modes of political representation-which this article seeks to underline and through this, to develop a clearer understanding of possible futures for representative democracy.
大量关于政治不满、民粹主义、“暴民政治”以及“愤怒时代”出现的文献表明，在过去十年间，民主政治的本质及其运作的社会政治背景似乎发生了急剧变化。这体现在挑战型政党的崛起、非正统政治家的当选，以及对民主“危机”“死亡”或“终结”的广泛担忧。然而，可以理解的是，现有分析采用了基于政党的代议制政治的传统模式作为主要解释视角或参考点来理解这些变化。本文采取了更为大胆的立场。它表明一种新的“不满政治”形式已经出现，它构成了一种独特且新颖的代议制民主类型。不满政治的定义是负面情绪的激发与疏导，以及各种基于指责的政治策略，这些策略明确挑战并混淆了许多传统上支撑政党政治传统观念的核心原则和价值观。本文旨在强调政党政治与不满政治之间的紧张关系，以及它们作为相互竞争的政治代表模式在当代的共存，并借此更清晰地理解代议制民主的可能未来。
