About this episode
Mark Leonard and Anton Jäger discuss the rise of hyperpolitics and its implications for political engagement and institutions in Western democracies.
This week, Mark Leonard welcomes Anton Jäger , lecturer in politics at Oxford University and author of Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization Without Political Consequences , to discuss why political engagement is surging across Western democracies—even as traditional political institutions continue to weaken. Anton argues that the West has entered a “hyperpolitics” era, marked by intense political engagement and protest but lacking durable organisations capable of sustaining change. Unlike the 1930s, to which the current era is often compared, today’s citizens are more politicised yet less likely to join institutions that enable long-term collective action. Mark and Anton explore how social media shapes political expression, why contemporary politics feels simultaneously more intense and less effective, and what figures like Donald Trump reveal about the relationship between political mobilisation and institutional power. They examine why right-wing movements appear to have adapted more successfully to the hyperpolitical age, and whether a new form of political organisation could eventually emerge from today’s fragmented landscape. What explains the growing gap between political…
People in this episode
Host: Mark Leonard
Guest: Anton Jäger
Topics covered
- hyperpolitics
- political engagement
- Western democracies
- social media
- political institutions
- right-wing movements
- collective action
Keywords
- hyperpolitics
- political engagement
- social media
- political institutions
- right-wing movements
- collective action
- Donald Trump
- political mobilisation
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Oxford University
Books & works: Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization Without Political Consequences
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