Feeling Political in Demonstrations: Street Politics in Germany, 1832

Feeling Political in Demonstrations: Street Politics in Germany, 1832–2018

Published:2022 Issue: Volume: Page:341-371
ISSN:
Container-title:Feeling Political
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Short-container-title:

Author:

Frevert Ute

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter focuses on street politics in Germany. Before the establishment of elected parliaments, there were social movements in which citizens united to make public demands for political representation. The practice of democracy in such associations was synonymous with practicing political feelings—democracy involved a high level of emotional excitement and dynamism. The decades preceding the 1848 revolution, the post-revolutionary 1920s and early 1930s (including National Socialist mobilization), and the social movements of the 1970s and 1980s illustrate how emotions served as mobilizing forces and were necessary for sustaining personal involvement and political activism. Yet these examples also shed light on the problematic side of political emotions, which could sometimes block or polarize political debate and obstruct collective action. The more action in the public sphere was defined by passion, the more exclusionary politics could become: this was the argument mounted by early liberalism against women’s political participation.

Publisher

Springer International Publishing

Link

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-030-89858-8_12

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