The Politics of Moderation in Modern European History

Description

This book charts the varieties of political moderation in modern European history from the French Revolution to the present day. It explores the attempts to find a middle way between ideological extremes, from the nineteenth-century Juste Milieu and balance of power, via the Third Ways between capitalism and socialism, to the current calls for moderation beyond populism and religious radicalism. The essays in this volume are inspired by the widely-recognized need for a more nuanced political discourse. The contributors demonstrate how the history of modern politics offers a range of experiences and examples of the search for a middle way that can help us to navigate the tensions of the current political climate. At the same time, the volume offers a diagnosis of the problems and pitfalls of Third Ways, of finding the middle between extremes, and of the weaknesses of the moderate point of view. Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Introduction: The Politics of Moderation (Ido de Haan, Matthijs Lok)....Pages 1-25 Front Matter ....Pages 27-27 Against Popular Societies and Faction: Transatlantic Discourses of Moderation in the American, French and Dutch Republics of the 1790s (René Koekkoek)....Pages 29-48 Moderation and Religion in France After the Revolution: Germaine de Staël and Benjamin Constant (Arthur Ghins)....Pages 49-65 ‘The Extremes Set the Tone’: Counter-Revolutionary Moderation in Continental Conservatism (ca. 1795–1835) (Matthijs Lok)....Pages 67-88 Taming the Evil Passions: Moderation in the International Relations (Beatrice de Graaf)....Pages 89-107 In Medio Stat Virtus? The Adaptability of the Moderate Project of Politics in Mid-nineteenth-Century Europe (1830–1870) (Amerigo Caruso)....Pages 109-127 Front Matter ....Pages 129-129 Third Ways Out of the Crisis of Liberalism: Moderation and Radicalism in Germany, 1880–1950 (Ido de Haan)....Pages 131-150 French Fascism as a ‘Revolution of the Centre’: Intellectuals Between Revolution and Conservation (Daniel Knegt)....Pages 151-162 Moderation Through Expertise: Functional Elites and the Politics of Moderation in Western Europe’s Mid-Twentieth Century (Camilo Erlichman)....Pages 163-186 ‘Disconnect Romanticism from Politics’: Democracy’s Moderate Face in Cold War Western Europe (Pepijn Corduwener)....Pages 187-203 The Short History and Long Legacy of the Third Way: Social Democracy and Moderation at the End of the Twentieth Century (Hanco Jürgens)....Pages 205-219 Front Matter ....Pages 221-221 Moderation as Orthodoxy in Sunni Islam: Or, Why Nobody Wants to Be the Kharijite (Robbert Woltering)....Pages 223-236 Moderation: A Radical Virtue (Aurelian Craiutu, Sheldon Gellar)....Pages 237-257 Back Matter ....Pages 259-272