CSPO 23A03 - What does it mean to be politically radical ?
This sociology course will deal with the meaning of radical political engagement in contemporary regimes based on two main examples: the French case and the Russian case. The first example helps to define political radicalism in the context of contemporary liberal democracies, where the opposition has its own political territory: how is it possible to differentiate opposition and political radicalism? In the second example, we will be interested in the process by which the central power designs political radicalism, especially by the means of repressive laws such as the Russian "law on extremism". This comparison, fueled by other European and international examples will lead us to consider not only radicalism as a political affiliation in itself, but as the result of power struggles involving labels and denominations for the conquest of public space. At this step, the analysis will be centered on the "mainstream" political communication, on the role of medias and of social networks in the definition both of public space and of radicalism. We will also mobilize new scientific methods such as the quantitative analysis of the web. Finally, the third part of the course will be devoted to the study of key themes to understand political radicalism such as the use of violence, the political discourse of the artistic and aesthetic vanguard, the revival of fascism…
This course, even if tools from political science and from history of ideas will be borrowed, is a sociology course. It will therefore be based more on historical examples and analyzes of militant organizations, rather than on conceptual analysis and gre