Failed governments substitute culture-war gestures for material delivery
Evidence
But culture war is free. Yushchenko was able to throw some red meat to more nationalistic Ukrainians, if he couldn’t deliver on bread-and-butter issues. A 2001 census indicated that 78 percent of the country considered themselves ethnically Ukrainian, while 30 percent considered Russian their “language of origin,” and even more preferred to use Russian as a primary means of communication. Under the new president, it became harder to do so—only Ukrainian, the official language, could be used in official government business, and Yushchenko pushed for more media in the national language. Many people experienced this new “Ukrainization” as the recovery of the national identity, and others felt it as a repression of minority rights. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 477
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: This is a live, current example of the same dynamics in the author’s article on grievances/identity signaling - culture war as substitute for bread-and-butter delivery.
- XREF: connects to: Pervasive military metaphors in social policy reveal state character — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 274; The clash-of-civilizations thesis displaced political conflicts onto culture; Material incentives harden sacred-value conflicts while symbolic gestures soften them (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Material incentives harden sacred-value conflicts while symbolic gestures soften them
#qualifies(0.78) - The clash-of-civilizations thesis displaced political conflicts onto culture
#expands(0.75) - Frame cultural-policy choices as technical rather than political serves dominant elites
#expands(0.75) - Culture becomes administrable precisely by being severed from practical action
#expands(0.74) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 161 - Pervasive military metaphors in social policy reveal state character
#expands(0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 274 - Humanizing gestures alone can spontaneously suspend war hostilities
#complicates(0.72)