Syncretic politics

This article is about the politics outside of the conventional spectrum. For other uses, see Third Way (disambiguation).

Syncretic politics or spectral-syncretic refers to politics outside of the conventional left–right political spectrum. The term syncretic politics has been derived from the idea of syncretism (syncretic religion).[1] The main idea of syncretic politics is that taking political positions of neutrality by combining elements associated with the left and right can achieve a goal of reconciliation.[2][3][4] Since this umbrella term is defined by the negation of the two standard poles of a given one-dimensional political spectrum, it refers to quite heterogeneous approaches.

The Falange of Spain presented itself as syncretic.[5] Falangism has attacked both the left and the right as its "enemies", declaring itself to be neither left nor right, but a third position.[6]

Adolf Hitler, after criticizing both left and right-wing politics in Mein Kampf, presented fascism and Nazism as a politically syncretic "Third Way",[7] which expression has also been promoted by various post-1945 movements.[8]

In Hungary there has been a strong presence of syncretic political parties since the revolutions of 1989. They won the election in 1990 forming a coalition government: Hungarian Democratic Forum, Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party and KDNP. KDNP later became a close ally of FIDESZ, losing this attribute in the process. After the first 4-year term syncretic parties went into a decline, many of them disappearing and only two new ones emerging since then: Hungarian Justice and Life Party and Politics Can Be Different, the latter still being present in the Hungarian parliament. Notable politicians are prime minister József Antall, minister of agriculture and rural development József Torgyán and green leader András Schiffer.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "syncretism". The Free Dictionary. Retrieved 2013-10-27.
  2. ↑ Griffin, Roger (1995-09-07). Fascism (paperback). Oxford readers (second printing ed.). Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 8, 307. ISBN 978-0192892492.
  3. ↑ Kallis, Aristotle A. (2002-12-25). The Fascism Reader. Routledge. p. 71. ISBN 978-0415243599.
  4. ↑ Blamires, Cyprian. World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia (hardcover) (in ABC-CLIO and Inc.) (5 ed.). Santa Barbara, California, USA: ABC-CLIO, Inc. pp. 14, 561. ISBN 978-1576079409. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  5. ↑ Fernandez, Paloma Aguilar (August 2002). Memory in Amnesia: The Role of the Spanish Civil War in the Transition to Democracy (hardcover). Oxford, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1571817570. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  6. ↑ Griffin, Roger (1995-09-07). Fascism (paperback). Oxford readers (second printing ed.). Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 189. ISBN 978-0192892492. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  7. ↑ Koshar, Rudy. Social Life, Local Politics, and Nazism: Marburg, 1880-1935, University of North Carolina Press, 1986. p. 190.
  8. ↑ James L. Richardson. Contending Liberalisms in World Politics: Ideology and Power. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001 Pp. 194.