Jürgen Habermas on politics and its discontents

The growing xenophobia and the search for charismatic leaders have a common denominator: discontent with a defeatist political class that lacks the courage to take action, writes German philosopher Jürgen Habermas in the left-liberal daily La Repubblica: "The motivations underlying each of the three phenomena - the fear of immigrants, attraction to charismatic non-politicians and the grass-roots rebellion in Stuttgart - are different. But they meet in the cumulative effect of a growing discontent when faced with a self-enclosed and ever more helpless political system. The more the scope for action by national governments shrinks and the more meekly politics submits to what appear to be inevitable economic imperatives, the more people's trust in a resigned political class diminishes. ... What is needed in Europe is a revitalized political class that overcomes its own defeatism with a bit more perspective, resoluteness and cooperative spirit. Democracy depends on the belief of the people that there is some scope left for collectively shaping a challenging future."

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