Populizm i radykalizm: niepokój społeczny we współczesnej Europie

The growth of nationalism and communitarian egoisms are frequently explained in terms of populism. This diagnosis not only says little about the essence of the problem, but it prevents a rational response to the associated risks. Instead, we propose to describe the current situation in terms of „social unrest”, which is expressed both in the reactionary attitudes of the extreme right, as well as in radical left. Unrest also points to the broader phenomenon of social movements, which express and respond to the real problems and conflicts of contemporary Europe. In place of uninformative view of the „spectrum of populism” we offer a complex interpretation, which considers anti-systemic movements as a reaction to the deficiencies of liberal democracy, turbo-capitalism, the crisis of political life, a response to painful costs of modernization, pathologies of mass culture and the primacy of science oriented culture. We also discuss the manifestations of a separate phenomenon of Manichaeism and political cynicism, which we consider as significant for populism.