Reactionary and Progressive Rhetoric in Post-communist Transformation: a Note on Translating Hirschman's Ideas into a Different Context
2020
Abstract
This paper aims to show the lines along which Albert O. Hirschman's analysis of reactionary and progressive political rhetoric can be extended to post-communist transformations.
It is argued that even though Hirschman did not propose to look for the same types of rhetoric he identified in his book "The Rhetoric of Reaction" in the spheres outside of its original historical context, the application of the Hirschmanian typology to communist and post-communist political discourse not only provides a proof of its extraordinary productivity, but it also generates new insights and modifications to the original scheme.