Dr. Norbert Kis,
The author is a professor of law at the National University of Public Service in Hungary and the Dean of the Faculty of Public Governance and Administration (Hungary). He is a member of the governing board of European Institute of Public Administration, Maastricht. His research fields are public governance, policy-making, legislation and comparative public administration.
This essay gives voice to pondering the dramatic changes in the Western politics of our era. The crisis of democracy, the spread of populism and the progression of national right-wing ideologies are the key headings of the analyses that research the phenomenon of, and deep social and even socio-psychological reasons for, the political reactions of Western societies. It assumes that the increasing anti-political attitude of the Western societies is shaped by two psychological factors: the burnout of Western people (their unhappiness) and Western people’s increasing fear. As for our hypothesis, Western voters’ psychic condition is deteriorating through a synergy of several “traps”. These are (a) the trap of improving well-being (luxury trap), (b) the technological trap and (c) the biological paradox. Western people have reached the psychological tipping point these decades and have been looking for fast, radical and plausible politics. At this point the national political-based, in every sense protectionist, i.e., protective politics promising cultural identity and at the same time individual identity is successful. All these are a comeback to pre-modern political culture where the promises are guaranteed by the leader to make the public happy personally and through his charisma.
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest present.