The sacralization of violence in the civil sphere: Backlash and mimetic crises in Germany and Russia

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the sacralization of violence in contemporary societies and explores whether its symbolization can stimulate violent collective actions. In contrast to the actor-centric studies of collective violence, I suggest considering this problématique from the perspective of the Civil Sphere Theory (CST), whose conceptualization of civil society as the civil sphere, which relies on the discourses of civil solidarity, offers an innovative description of the symbolic structures of civil society with an impact on political processes. It argues that symbolic structures should be considered capable of influencing the motives and decisions of social and political actors instead of being treated as just their communicative tools. To investigate imitative quasi-solidarization practices in civil societies, this dissertation proposes synthesizing the CST with mimetic theory. I argue that this synthesis overcomes the normative limitations of the CST by suggesting a solid theoretical ground for investigating the sacralization of violence in the civil sphere connected to the destructive quasi-solidarization practices of anti-democratic backlash actors when the social agonism connected to democratic competition transforms into violent antagonistic practices. With this, the analysis can be applied to political phenomena, enriching the very understanding of the question at hand. Drawing on Multilayered Narrative Analysis (MNA), which relies on the aforementioned theoretical synthesis, I explore how German and Russian backlash actors constructed and amplified mimetic crises to sacralize violence in German and Russian societies. The chosen case studies of backlash amplification of mimetic crises connect to the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine; both were instrumental for the empirical analysis of the sacralization of violence in the civil sphere. The results suggest that the German and Russian backlash, by employing similar quasi-solidarization practices, stimulated the intensification of the mimetic crises in their societies, which led to outbreaks of violence against defined antagonists justified as a necessary and even sacred action. In particular, the German backlash discourses were directed against the German democratic civil sphere’s center (its discourses, officeholders, and civil institutions) and sparked violence against it, while what I term the Russian backlash state constructed an imitative model of the civil sphere to legitimize its autocratic ambitions and justify violence against its opponents.:Table of Contents iii List of Acronyms v List of Tables viii List of Figures ix INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE 7 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: VIOLENCE IN THE CIVIL SPHERE 7 1.1 The civil sphere and its structures 8 1.2 The civil sphere and the substitution of violence 9 1.3 Sacralization of violence in the civil sphere? 11 1.3.1 Backlash populism of the far right in the civil sphere 13 1.3.2 Backlash state and the pseudo-civil sphere 15 CHAPTER TWO 18 METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK: MULTILAYERED NARRATIVE ANALYSIS 18 2.1 Layer 1: Binaries 18 2.2 Layer 2: Narratives 22 2.3 Layer 3: Discourses 24 CHAPTER THREE 27 RESULTS: BACKLASH & MIMETIC CRISES IN GERMANY AND RUSSIA 27 3.1 Sacralization of violence during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany 28 3.1.1. Zavershinskaia, P. (2023a). Appropriating the civil sphere: The construction of German collective identity by right-wing populist actors during the Covid-19 pandemic. American Journal of Cultural Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-023-00189-2 31 3.1.2 Buarque, B., and Zavershinskaia, P. (2022). The far-right politics of ‘truth’: An exploratory analysis of the ‘truths’ produced by AfD Kompakt and Patriotic Alternative. In V. A. Bruno (Ed.), Populism and far-right: Trends in Europe (Vol. 4, pp. 25–48). EDUCatt. https://www.polidemos.it/volume-4-2022/ 59 3.2 Sacralization of violence during the Russian invasion of Ukraine 83 3.2.1 Zavershinskaia, P. (2024). State’s legitimisation of violence through strategic narration: How the Kremlin justified the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The International Spectator. https://doi.org/10.1080/03932729.2024.2327492 85 3.2.2 Zavershinskaia, P. (2023b). “Why do we need a world without Russia in it?” Discursive justifications of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Russia and Germany. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 29(2), 129–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537113.2023.2199927 105 3.2.3 Zavershinskaia, P. (forthcoming). Against the civil society’s centre: Mimetic crises by the German populist right. In K. J. Patterson & E. Hidalgo-Tenorio (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Discourses of Extremism. Routledge. 131 CONCLUSION 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY 15