The Anti-enlightenment Tradition as a Source of Cynicism in the European Union
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The Anti‑enlightenment Tradition as a Source of Cynicism in the European Union Tamas Dezso Ziegler1 Received: 3 February 2020 / Accepted: 5 November 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This article analyses the effect of the anti-Enlightenment tradition on the functioning of the European Union. This tradition covers a lack of belief in liberal values, human rights, egalitarianism, the rule of law, individualism, tolerance, and the respectful cooperation among people. Its ideological background is not new: its existence is also the reason why scholars started to talk about post-fascism in the twenty-first century. In a number of European Union member states, where autocratic tendencies have recently been witnessed (like in Hungary or Poland), it started to dominate decision-making, while its presence is also visible elsewhere, like in the UK, Germany, and Italy. This article selects four prime examples (the rule of law backlash, refugee law, Brexit, and changes to the single market) to show how arguments containing elements of the anti-Enlightenment tradition are used in a cynical way to support partisan and oppressive politics while maintaining a seemingly inclusive façade of democratic decision-making. In the European Union, this can result in dubious, un-explained measures and great policy changes both at EU and member state level. Keywords European Union · Human rights · Single market · Refugee crisis · AntiEnlightenment National Socialism was not an aberration; it was, rather, the product of a dialectical historic process of economic, social, and political forces on one hand, and human hopes and longing for the good life on the other. National Socialism was successful as a mass movement precisely, because it was able to turn long-cherished myths and symbols to its own purposes. George Mosse (Mosse 1981 p. 1)
* Tamas Dezso Ziegler [email protected] 1
Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute for International and Political Studies, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter Sétány 1/A, 1114 Budapest, Hungary
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Chinese Political Science Review
1 Background European integration has gone through numerous crises in recent years, exerting a strong effect on legislation as well as its application and enforcement at the national level. In certain fields, this change—and the divergence it has produced across EU Member States—is so visible that a debate has emerged in European studies about whether the EU is disintegrating altogether (Börzel and Risse 2018; Eppler et al. 2016; Jones 2018; Kelemen 2007; Krastev 2012; Kreuder-Sonnen 2018; Kunz 2013; Scheller and Eppler 2014; Schmitter 2012; Schmitter and Lefkofridi 2016; Taylor 2008; Webber 2014; Vollaard 2018). In that discussion, authors from various ideological and theoretical perspectives have been endeavouring to frame the driving issues. The current article claims that one reason for this tumult can be found in the political traditions of the Member States and the EU. Recently, a growing number of scholars (Copsey 2013; Finchelstei
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