Anti-politics - an Opportunity or a Threat to Democracy?

The aim of the panel is to identify the various dimensions of anti-politics and to analyze any already uncovered, but also those potential consequences it has for the democratic system. The scientific study of anti-politics needs to be placed in the broader context of socioeconomic change, not limited to the easily grasped empirical data indicating a decline in trust in politicians and politics itself, or attempts to revitalize existing public institutions. It requires the use of different research perspectives and approaches, and above all, capturing politics in its processual dimension - and perhaps even more its dialectical nature. The phenomenon of anti-politics in contemporary democratic practices can be read as a mechanism that corrects political representativeness or as an important element that redefines the idea of political pluralism. It can also be explained in terms of the sources of the crisis in liberal democratic states, including the reduction of the political sphere to media electoral competition or the disappearance of the ethical or ideological character of political competition. This panel is intended to create a space for discussion around two main issues:
1. The category of anti-politics in contemporary political science - disputes over definitions, ways of explaining it, differences in interpretive approaches.
2. The manifestations, dimensions and effects of anti-politics in liberal-democratic states.