The light that went out

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The light that went out. A settlement is a book by political scientists Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes , which was published in 2019 in the English original as The light that failed. A reckoning and in the same year appeared in German translation. The book attempts to describe the new world order that has been developing since 1989 with a new pair of opposites. Where capitalism and communism once stood opposite each other, there is now the contrast between liberals and disappointed imitators of liberalism who have become authoritarian populists.

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Viktor Orbán (Hungary)
Jarosław Kaczyński (Poland)
Vladimir Putin (Russia)
Donald Trump (USA)
Xi Jinping (China)

The book title of the German-language edition has the names of five politicians underlaid on the dust jacket: Viktor Orbán , Jarosław Kaczyński , Vladimir Putin , Xi Jinping and Donald Trump . They are the protagonists of the developments described in the book. These developments are described by the authors in the introductory chapter as a "thirty-year age of imitation", which began in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and is now to be regarded as an interlude, because the dream of a limitless world has meanwhile been achieved through global "building of the wall." -Fever "has been replaced. The title Das Licht, das Erlosch refers on the one hand to democracy and liberalism as a "beacon", on the other hand to Rudyard Kipling's novel "The Light that Failed" from 1890, which Kipling presented in two versions, the shorter one had a happy ending, the longer one an unfortunate one. Correspondingly, Krastev and Holmes believe "that the end of the age of imitation will mean tragedy or hope, depending on how liberals deal with their post- Cold War experiences ."

"From the spirit of imitation"

In the chapter “The Spirit of Imitation” the processes in Eastern Central Europe, especially in Hungary and Poland, are examined. These states have joined the EU and one would have believed that they had to adapt. So they would have imitated liberalism just as before, by necessity, Soviet communism. This imitation, so the interpretation of Krastev and Holmes, was humiliating. As a result, you would become like who you admire - and dissimilar to yourself. From the authors' point of view, this collective feeling of alienation and humiliation provided the ideal breeding ground for the intolerant communitarianism of Central European populists, whose spokesmen were Orbán and Kaczyński. The depopulation process that began in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall made it easier for populist counter-elites to portray the liberalism of open borders and the universalism of human rights as something that harms the national heritage and traditions of their countries.

"Imitation in retaliation"

The chapter “Imitation in Retaliation” deals with Russia's bitterness over the loss of the Soviet Union's superpower status . In Russia, write Krastev and Holmes, people have pretended to be a democracy for twenty years. With the occupation of Crimea, Putin openly relied on confrontation. He also interfered in the US election campaign in 2016, not to promote a Kremlin-friendly candidate, but only to demonstrate Russian power. Meanwhile, the main goal of Russian foreign policy is to expose the supposed universalism of the West as a cover under which clear geopolitical interests emerge. The West makes it easy for her because it has repeatedly trampled on its own ideals. "Instead of pretending to imitate America's domestic political system, Putin and his entourage prefer to imitate the way America illegally interferes in other countries' domestic politics."

"Imitation as expropriation"

With the chapter “Imitation as expropriation”, the authors devote themselves to developments in the United States, describing Donald Trump as Orbán's, Kaczyński and Putin's “willing accomplices” in the destruction of the liberal world order. He has won widespread support that it has become a disadvantage for the United States to be copied. The imitators could replace the model. This creates fear of being replaced and dispossessed. Trump, the leader of the country that created the liberal world order, reacts to this with measures to destroy this world order.

"The end of an era"

In the final chapter, “The End of an Era”, the authors deal with the rise of China as a competitor to the USA. This ends the age of imitation. China did not imitate. It had borrowed (especially technologically) from the West both openly and secretly, but insisted that it keep its “main Chinese characteristics”. Unlike the Central Europeans who wanted to convert to liberal democracy , the Chinese developed their society after 1989 "without jeopardizing their cultural identity, and therefore without ever feeling like cultural swindlers and frauds." they have no ideological missionary ambitions. They demanded influence and respect without wanting to convert the whole world to their ideas.

criticism

According to Michael Kuhlmann's review at Deutschlandfunk Kultur , the book explains “how catastrophic the failed policy of a West that considered its variety of liberalism to be unsurpassable and delightful to humanity has been. A dogmatic liberalism that fights against economic monopoly, but defends its own intellectual monopoly. "

Political scientist Philip Manow describes the book in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as a “kind of geopolitical pattern interpretation” that is not based on any research of his own. The concept of the imitation of the West by the Eastern European countries after 1989, which was developed by the authors, is impressive because of its courage and flexibility, but it lacks consistency and argumentative thoroughness. When describing the situation in the United States, the argument finally left the legitimate zone. "Because if both imitate and imitate are to explain the crisis of the liberal order, the concept obviously cannot explain anything in this regard."

Jens Bisky writes in the Süddeutsche Zeitung that the sketch of the age of imitation has a suggestive effect, aphorisms and witty formulations help over cliffs of argumentation. And he asks about right-wing populists in the West, such as Marine Le Pen , Christoph Blocher , Pim Fortuyn , who do not appear in the book. "Such fades are sleight of hand for the western audience."

expenditure

Article based on the book

German-language reviews (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes : The light that went out. A settlement. Translated from English by Karin Schuler. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, ISBN 3-550-05069-0 , pp. 7–32 (Chapter: The discomfort with imitation ).
  2. ↑ Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes: The light that went out. A settlement. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, p. 9.
  3. ↑ Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes: The light that went out. A settlement. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, p. 303 f.
  4. ↑ Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes: The light that went out. A settlement. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, pp. 33–115.
  5. ↑ Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes: The light that went out. A settlement. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, pp. 117–203.
  6. ↑ Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes: The light that went out. A settlement. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, p. 29.
  7. ↑ Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes: The light that went out. A settlement. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, pp. 205-276.
  8. ↑ Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes: The light that went out. A settlement. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, p. 205.
  9. ↑ Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes: The light that went out. A settlement. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, pp. 277–304.
  10. ↑ Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes: The light that went out. A settlement. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, p. 286.
  11. ↑ Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes: The light that went out. A settlement. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, p. 289.
  12. ↑ Michael Kuhlmann, book review “The light that went out. A settlement " . In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur , November 11, 2019.
  13. ↑ Philip Manow : Imitate and be imitated. Why is liberalism in crisis? Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes explain the world situation with very rough brushstrokes. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 6, 2019.
  14. ↑ Jens Bisky : Turning away from the role model. Even at dusk, everything revolves around the west - Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes reckon with liberal certainties . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 1, 2019.