Reactionary politics: concept and examples

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:42

Reaction is a relative concept. It applies to any action that is a response to a stimulus. For example, the Renaissance with its cult of reason is a kind of reaction to the Middle Ages, and any revolution is the result of dissatisfaction with the previous political regime.

Concept

Reactionary politics is based on opposition to the existing or previous social order, especially if those are more progressive. In addition, this term can be applied to movements that advocate the preservation of the current social or political order.

The political reaction is characterized by anti-opposition and anti-revolutionary. At the same time, the reactionary trend in no way refers to radicalist trends. Most often this concept is used in relation to monarchists, clericalists, supporters of feudalism, etc., that is, to extreme conservatives. Thus, the reactionary policy may be a consequence of the previous conservative course, ignoring progressive trends.

Often reactionism ingovernment circles arises as a result of reactionism in society. A typical example of this phenomenon is the French literature of the early 19th century in the person of François-René de Chateaubriand ("On Bonaparte, the Bourbons and the need to join our legitimate princes for the sake of the happiness of France and Europe", "On the monarchy according to the charter").

The psychological theory of parties comes from the fact that reactionary politics is the result of excessive immersion of its participants in radicalism, liberalism or other currents. Reactionism can be in any society and at any time. Its supporters advocate a return to obsolete institutions and the suppression of everything progressive. An example of such a reactionary party is the monarchists in France.

Historical examples

Reactionary epochs include:

1. The Gloomy Seven Years (Nicholas I banned the departure of subjects abroad, as well as the import of foreign books, fearing the growth of revolutionary sentiment).
2. The policy of Alexander III (limiting the autonomy of universities, changing the rules of the press).
3. The policy of Charles II after the restoration of the Stuarts (renunciation of the amnesty, the restoration of the Anglican Church, the removal of property rights from objectionable, etc.).
4. The first years after the revolution of 1848-1849. in Austria and Prussia (strengthening government power, restricting rights and freedoms in society by amending the constitution).
5. White terror after the restoration of the Bourbons (persecution of Jacobins and liberals).
6. Charles X's policy leading to the July Revolution of 1830
7. Vichy Regime (restoration of the church's influence in the public and political life of society, anti-democratism, political repression, the course towards Nazi Germany).
8. The reign of Abdul-Hamid II (reliance on the ideas of pan-Islamism, the desire to establish sole power, rejection of the Tanzimat reforms).

Opinions in literature

Some researchers consider reactionary politics a natural phenomenon after bourgeois revolutions. For example, P. Sorokin wrote the following.

Reaction is not a phenomenon that goes beyond the revolution, but an inevitable part of the revolutionary period itself - its second half.

R. Michels divided revolutions into actually "revolutionary" and "reactionary". However, this interpretation has no adherents at present.