ABSTRACT
In European political theory, radicalism has long been associated with leftist ideas and socialist theories. ‘To be a “radical”’, Anthony Giddens writes, ‘was to have a certain view of the possibilities inherent in history — radicalism meant breaking away from the hold of the past’ (Giddens 1994: 1). Some radicals were immersed in the idea of revolution and many were fascinated by the possibility of bringing about an entirely ‘new’ historical sequence. ‘History was there to be seized hold of, to be moulded to human purposes’, Giddens argues, ‘such that the advantages which in previous eras seemed given by God, and the prerogative of the few, could be developed and organized for the benefit of all’ (ibid.). This definition of radical politics as a revolt against the status quo is also emphasized by Fred Halliday (1999: 36). He focused on revolutions more specifically when he conceptualized them as ‘a break with the constraints of the past, the traditional or established society’. Revolutions made it possible to imagine ‘a new society, even a new world, to be constructed. This emphasis upon breaking with the past, the creation of something new’, he continues, ‘was to become a prominent strain in the appeals and self-justification of revolutions’.
