Politik och emotioner

Abstract

In this article Jan Fredriksson examines what we could call the emotional basis or emotional conditions of politics. We are used to looking at emotions as something that primarily belongs to the human nature and nothing that has to do with our behaviour as citizens. Although we are conscious of that emotions can make us behave irrational it is expected that we as good citizens in public life can control our expressions of emotions. Maybe that is the reason that so much of the research that has been done about the conditions of politics focuses on politics as a sphere of activities ruled by interest and rational thinking, where emotional affects are considered as either rhetorical or clanger. According to my opinion the understanding of emotion and emotional expressions as a cultural phenomenon might be an important tool in the analysis of politics.