Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Many commentators would agree that Fukuyama’s optimistic vision of the end of history appeared to be naive in the confrontation with reality. Even if Fukuyama was misunderstood, as he explained away himself to his critics, many believe that after 9/11 it is obvious that we live in the harsh world of Huntingtonian clash of civilizations. Moreover, if anything has ended in the age of globalization it is rather geography than history. Thus separate civilizations and ways of life are as close to each other as never before. In such circumstances, new political movements emerge. Rogers Brubaker, in his article Between nationalism and civilizationism: the European populist moment in comparative perspective, provides us with an interesting analysis of a new populist tendency in the developed West, which seems to be an answer to above indicated conditions. Interestingly, in the Brubaker’s analysis of civilizationism one can find crucial ideas reminding the essentialism and reductionism of Huntington’s theory which draws from the paradigm of conflict theory. My paper has three goals. Firstly, I discuss critically Brubaker’s concept of civilizationism. Secondly, I deliver more detailed characteristics of civilizationist political movements by juxtaposing them with Huntington’s theoretical ideas. Thirdly, I go beyond Western Europe discussed by Brubaker and consider the specific features of civilizationist movements in Central and Eastern Europe by considering selected examples from Poland and other countries of the region.