Political messianism and democracy: On possibility of political self-transformation of democracy

Abstract

The article deals with the relation of political messianism to ongoing debate on the crisis of democracy. The conceptual framework of political messianism is the convenient analytical tool because it makes the concept of crisis a starting point for formulating a different politics of redemption. Three conceptions of political messianism are being analyzed: as a revolutionary policies, as critical tool, as well as open possibility of radical changes. It shows in all three cases that deep beliefs play an important role in politics and that it is not possible to immunize political order from them. The second part of the paper points to the significance of these insights for understanding the discourse on the crisis of democracy which important part represents the loss of faith in the ability of democratic institutions to formulate a framework for meaningful political actions of citizens. As a result, there has been a transformation of the concept of democracy which now sees political actions of citizens-amateurs as a nuisance. Such a condition produces tensions which are burdening the functioning of democratic regimes. In conclusion, it is noted that contemporary democracies are not able to restore faith in the fundamentals of its existence as long as they insist on the primacy of the form of democracy, which in the meantime has become the norm, but fails to convince the citizens in their intrinsic values.

Tekst se bavi odnosom političkog mesijanizma i rasprava o krizi demokratije. Pojmovni okvir političkog mesijanizma je pogodno analitičko oruđe jer u njemu pojam krize čini polaznu tačku na osnovu koje se formulišu različite politike izbavljenja. Analizirana su tri shvatanja političkog mesijanizma: kao revolucionarne politike, kako kritičkog oruđa i kao otvorene mogućnosti radikalne promene. U sva tri slučaja pokazuje se da duboka uverenja imaju važnu ulogu u politici i da nije moguće imunizovati politički poredak od njih. U drugom delu teksta ukazuje se na značaj ovih uvida za razumevanje diskursa o krizi demokratije čiji važan deo čini gubitak vere u sposobnost demokratskih ustanova da formulišu okvir za smisaono političko delovanje građana. Usled toga, došlo je do transformacije pojma demokratije koji sada političko delovanje građana-amatera vidi kao smetnju. Takvo stanje proizvodi napetosti koji opterećuju funkcionisanje demokratskih režima. U zaključku se konstatuje da savremene demokratije nisu u stanju da obnove veru u osnove svog postojanja sve dok insistiraju na primatu forme demokratije, koja je u međuvremenu postala norma, a koja nije u stanju da uveri građane u svoje intrinsične vrednosti.