eBook - ePub

Democracy and Myth in Russia and Eastern Europe

Name: Democracy and Myth in Russia and Eastern Europe
ISBN: 9781134089079

Alexander Wöll,

Harald Wydra,

240 pages
English
ePUB (mobile friendly)
Available on iOS & Android

eBook - ePub

Democracy and Myth in Russia and Eastern Europe

Alexander Wöll,

Harald Wydra,

About this book

In the absence of democratic state institutions, eastern European countries were considered to possess only myths of democracy. Working on the premise that democracy is not only an institutional arrangement but also a civilisational project, this book argues that mythical narratives help understanding the emergence of democracy without 'democrats'. Examining different national traditions as well as pre-communist and communist narratives, myths are seen as politically fabricated 'programmes of truth' that form and sustain the political imagination. Appearing as cultural, literary, or historical resources, myths amount to ideology in narrative form, which actors use in political struggles for the sake of achieving social compliance and loyalty with the authority of new political forms. Drawing on a wide range of case studies including Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, this book argues that narratives about the past are not simply 'legacies' of former regimes but have actively shaped representations and meanings of democracy in the region. Taking different theoretical and methodological approaches, the power of myth is explored for issues such as leadership, collective identity-formation, literary representation of heroic figures, cultural symbolism in performative art as well as on the constitution of legitimacy and civic identity in post-communist democracies.

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Yes, you can access Democracy and Myth in Russia and Eastern Europe by Alexander Wöll,Harald Wydra in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Russian History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.