Illiberalism as a Culture

Abstract

Abstract Illiberalism is examined here as a specific form of common sense or ethos, while anti-liberalism is approached as an ideology. The latter will be studied not through an examination of written works but through a close reading of two artistic exhibitions. They differ in their treatment of such topics as women’s rights, criticism of the European Union, and most prominently in their understanding of liberty. The analysis reveals several key ideological differences between liberal and anti-liberal modes of artistic representation. The contrast between liberal and illiberal types of ethos is illustrated by a comparison of political cultures in different locations in Poland. They are compared to show systematic association of illiberalism and liberalism with different types of social capital, conceptions of individualism, and models of authority. Challenges to liberalism are seen not as mere expressions of rebellion against an externally imposed call for imitation of the “West” but as components of the historically shaped illiberal forms of ethos in some areas that are amplified by the systematic propagation of anti-liberal ideologies.