ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author introduces an alternative perspective to the approach and terminology proposed by the Political Religion School. After chiselling out different elements in political culture, a comprehensive overview of the history of mythologies of the major political movements of our time (liberalism, socialism and conservatism) is outlined. It is suggested that we study what the Political Religion scholars label “political religion” as “mythic politics” (or more completely “myth-and-ritual-politics”), building our inquiries around the prominence of certain source material, certain text genre, etc., in a specific political culture. Mythic politics – an imaginative, seductive and utopian form of politics, revolving around symbols, stories and rituals rather than debates and arguments or reports and policy making – is accordingly conceived as a form that any political culture might take under certain circumstances. Mythic politics is not fixed to any specific ideology. Granted that democracy needs dedicated involvement of the mass, the demos, the author argues that any politics movement that aspires to substantial prominence in democratic societies requires a large portion of mythic politics. The chapter is completed with an important “excursion” on the noble art of comparison. Some regularly made mistakes are pointed out, and sounder methodological rules of thumb advocated.
