Disenfranchisement

Is it sometimes better to demolish an institution rather than trying to reform it?

The AfD is elbowing its way into the right-wing populist gap in the party political landscape with a call for a nationalistic approach to economic policy based on free market fundamentalism. As a counter-reaction to the pluralist and multicultural immigration society, it stands in opposition to everything that is Green.

With hard-right parties on the rise across Europe, Greens can learn from this recent surge in ‘populism’ by developing a positive and inclusive conception of the term. A Grand Narrative about a ‘Europe of hearts’ can speak to people directly and produce a different kind of patriotism to that of the nationalists: Europatriotism.

There is a certain amount of naivety surrounding the question of democracy. We have arrived at a situation in which a large proportion of the public has turned against democratic institutions, or at least withdrawn from any engagement in them. And therefore it might look as though the public has become apathetic towards the big political issues of our time. But is this really the case?