Review article
https://doi.org/10.20901/pm.59.1.01
CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTION AND NATIONALISM
Tihomir Cipek
orcid.org/0000-0002-3253-7326
; Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Zagreb
Abstract
The text uses the theory of nationalism to analyse the basic ideas of the conservative revolution. This is done through the reconstruction of the basic theses of the political thought of Thomas Mann, Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, Ernst Jünger, Oswald Spengler, and Carl Schmitt. The analysis is focused on the way in which the relationship between language and nation, war and nation, liberalism and nation, and the nation’s relationship with the West were interpreted. It can be concluded that language was considered to reflect the spirit of the nation, that war was considered as the foundation of national identity, that liberalism was considered to be the main ideological enemy of German national identity, and that the West was rejected while Russia and Dostoevsky were praised. According to this analysis, it can be stated that the German nationalism and the rejection of liberalism were the basis of the ideology of the conservative revolution. Finally, it can be pointed out that though conservative revolutionaries advocated dictatorship, they didn’t advocate a return to the old regime of the monarchy, but an authoritarian conservative utopia. Precisely because of the utopian features of the conservative revolution, its ideas are still appealing to the radical right.
Keywords
Conservative Revolution; Nationalism; War; Liberalism; West; Conservative Utopia
Hrčak ID:
275476
URI
Publication date:
21.4.2022.
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