How an Apolitical Citizenry Cedes Space to Reactionary Forces

Research team of Chemnitz University of Technology and Bundeswehr University Munich published ethnographic study on the background of the racist riots in Chemnitz at the end of August 2018 and provides perspectives on the complex of topics democracy and urban society.

On August 26, 2018, and in the days following the killing of Daniel H. by an asylum seeker on the fringes of the Chemnitz city festival, right-wing radicals and populists marched in Chemnitz. The events on site dominated the national and international press in the following period. "The events of August 2018 in Chemnitz point far beyond themselves in their social and political significance and offer insights into a so-called risk democracy," says Prof. Dr. Henning Laux, head of the Professorship for Sociological Theory at Chemnitz University of Technology. A risk democracy is a democratic society that produces tensions from its own logic and must resolve them. For example, protests are part of the democratic opinion-forming process. When populist forces use protests to paradoxically claim that their freedom of expression is being curtailed, this produces tensions. In order to understand this phenomenon more clearly, Henning Laux, together with Dr. Ulf Bohmann, research associate at Laux` professorship, and Dr. Jenni Brichzin, research associate at the Professorship of General Sociology at the Bundeswehr University Munich, conducted a two-year ethnographic study in Chemnitz.

In the process, they observed political events in numerous "arenas" of democratic discourse - including city council meetings and church services, at city festivals and demonstrations, in pubs and in the soccer stadium. Here they conducted conversations with participants as well as interviews with local experts in public life.

Their findings have been published in open access format in the volume “Risikodemokratie – Chemnitz zwischen rechtsradikalem Brennpunkt und europäischer Kulturhauptstadt” (Risk Democracy - Chemnitz between Right-Wing Radical Hotspot and European Capital of Culture).

Space for reactionary forces - apolitical social center with great longing for apolitical “normality”

The researchers conclude, among other things, that the events in Chemnitz at the end of August 2018 provide important insights about how a largely apolitical social center - with its longing for a "normality" unchallenged by any politics - cedes public space to reactionary forces. In this way, populists and right-wing radicals can present themselves unchallenged as legitimate representatives of the population who, as supposed victims, defend themselves against state repression.

"With our results, we want to help uncover anti-democratic or democracy-destroying processes and structures before they can become a serious danger," says Henning Laux. Chemnitz is particularly suitable for this, says the sociologist. However, not because these anti-democratic currents can only be found here, but because typical democratic threats of the present can be observed in a particularly pronounced form locally and became visible in the context of the events in August 2018 and afterwards. "What to do in the face of democracy-threatening criticism and protests that claim the same normative-democratic basis on which you operate yourself? We want to know what can be learned from the case of Chemnitz for democracy in the 21st century far beyond the region," says Laux.

Living in a Risk Democracy - When Success and Danger for Democracy Go Hand in Hand

The research team's central diagnosis is that Chemnitz reveals what it means to live in risk democracy. "With this diagnosis, however, we do not agree with the numerous swansongs to democracy by, for example, Runciman 2020, Mounk 2018, and Levitsky and Ziblatt 2018, which have become so popular recently," Jenni Brichzin clarifies. "For us, the focus is rather on the observation that current political upheavals - such as the rise of populism and the strengthening of radical right-wing tendencies - can only be understood if they are viewed in the context of the enormous successes of democratization."

Accordingly, the greatest dangers do not mainly come from outside. On the contrary, democracies themselves permanently produce political risks that have to be actively dealt with. The Chemnitz case illustrates how deeply democratic structures - such as the demand for a say or the rejection of the authoritarian state - are used to undermine democratic procedures and institutions. "We must learn to understand precisely such complex, sometimes paradoxical contexts," Brichzin emphasizes.

Apolitical attitude endangers democracy

The research team identifies the apolitical attitude of the social center as a particularly threatening democratic risk, which they describe in terms of three key aspects:

The social center in Chemnitz, for example, is particularly community-oriented, but primarily within the narrowest circle. In large parts, people do not actively seek a connection to collective political positioning and resist being taken over by collectives, regardless of the political side.   

Moreover, this part of society often perceives the democratic struggle for political attitudes and perspectives as a burden. "According to our data, a feeling of freedom and lightheartedness in the middle of society predominantly arises when one remains untroubled by the protracted and conflict-laden struggle for possible perspectives on the world," Laux said.

The third aspect identified by the sociologist is closely related to the second. For to the same extent that democratic debate is perceived as a burden, the people of Chemnitz also avoid conflicts per se. According to the research team, public statements and debates are experienced as demoralizing and unfair, people distrust political formulas of interpretation and prefer to retreat into the supposed unquestioning nature of their own experiences and views in private.

European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 as an opportunity and a mission

In times of risk democracy, democratic threats are often below the threshold of perception, but recognizing them is very important, the researchers note. This is also one reason why they can be so easily ignored by the apolitical center. In the view of Brichzin, Laux and Bohmann, these subliminal risks help to explain why Chemnitz was so surprised by the riots in 2018, and also why it is so difficult to counter radicalizing dynamics with clear measures.

The authors see finding new ways of dealing with the democratic challenges of the present as a great opportunity for the successful Chemnitz Capital of Culture application: "If, in the course of the Capital of Culture process, we succeed in developing effective and sustainable democratic ways of dealing with that risk, then a model of general significance for democracy could emerge at the same time," says Ulf Bohmann. This model could radiate internationally in a positive sense.

Radical right could use "stage" of Capital of Culture Year 2025 for themselves

However, following their investigation, the research team also raises the prospect that the radical right will very likely try to use the international attention of the 2025 Capital of Culture Chemnitz for its own purposes. "The Capital of Culture should try to arm itself against this in the best possible way by focusing in particular on the issue of democracy," says Bohmann. It is important to seize the opportunity to turn Chemnitz from a problem case into a model for the management of risk democracy and a role model for other cities. It would be a goal that is already in line with the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025.

Publication: Brichzin, Jenni/Laux, Henning/Bohmann, Ulf (2022). Risikodemokratie. Chemnitz zwischen rechtsradikalem Brennpunkt und europäischer Kulturhauptstadt. Bielefeld: transcript publisher.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839462263

Further information

Prof. Dr. Henning Laux, tel. +49 371 531-30404, e-mail henning.laux@hsw.tu-chemnitz.de

Dr. Ulf Bohmann, tel. +49 371 531-31153, e-mail ulf.bohmann@soziologie.tu-chemnitz.de

Dr. Jenni Brichzin, Universität der Bundeswehr München, tel. +49 89 6004-4535, e-mail jennifer.brichzin@unibw.de

(Translation: Brent Benofsky)

Matthias Fejes
30.08.2022

All "University News" articles