Political Reaction as Passive Revolution: Attempting a Conceptualization

Abstract

This article investigates the phenomenon of political reaction - a topic that has rarely been the subject of systematic study. Political reaction is described here in the context of its brief historical and conceptual genealogy. The history of the concept of "reaction” and its inclusion in the political vocabulary dates back to the events of the French Revolution and the Enlightenment. This explains why there is a genetic relation between both reaction and progressivism and between reaction and revolution. The author distinguishes two typical approaches to the concept of political reaction and its application: historico-chronological and discursive. Examples that illustrate the usage of these approaches reveal various political attitudes which can be described as "reactionary”, and serve as a basis for the analysis of their ideological and conceptual content. According to the historico-chronological approach, political reaction is understood as a reflex phenomenon that is a direct consequence of revolutionary change or reform; this reflex is represented by an attempt at restoring the order that preceded its transformation. According to the discursive approach, political reaction can be understood as negative (negation of change) or affirmative (assertion of the socio-political attitudes that were discredited). The article demonstrates that the rejection of change is neither the necessary condition nor the principle of a reactionary regime or rhetoric. Since the two presented approaches are limited and do not take into account a variety of factors determining reaction as a complex phenomenon of social and political life, the article offers an alternative approach to its conceptualization. A key principle of political reaction consists in the protection of order which defines the character of social change and limits political participation in the process of this change. Political reaction is conditioned by political and socio-economic challenges, which demands the transformation of the dominant social order for the sake of its reinforcement. In this context, political reaction is defined as a "passive revolution” within the framework offered by Antonio Gramsci for describing modernization that aims at preserving the hegemony of the elites and the appropriation of popular demand for social and political change.