Radical politics


Radical politics denotes the intent to transform or replace the principles of a society or political system, often through social change, structural change, revolution or radical reform. The process of adopting radical views is termed radicalisation.
The word "" derives from the Latin and Late Latin . Historically, political use of the term referred exclusively to a form of progressive electoral reformism, known as Radicalism, that had developed in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. However, the denotation has changed since its 18th century coinage to comprehend the entire political spectrum, though retaining the connotation of "change at the root".

History

The Encyclopædia Britannica records the first political usage of "radical" as ascribed to Charles James Fox, a British Whig Party parliamentarian who in 1797 proposed a "radical reform" of the electoral system, franchise to provide universal manhood suffrage, thereby idiomatically establishing "Radicals" to denote supporters of the reformation of the British Parliament.
Throughout the 19th century, the concept of radical politics broadened into a variety of political notions and doctrines, manifesting in working class, middle class, philosophic, democratic, bourgeois, Tory and plebeian forms. In the event, influential political figures, such as Thomas Spence and Richard Carlile, gave rise to their own trends of radical politics. As party politics in England became less radical, marginalised radical movements branched off and formed more politically aggressive factions. In United States politics, the term came to be used pejoratively among conservatives and moderates to denote political extremism. The 19th century Cyclopaedia of Political Science describes it as "characterized less by its principles than by the manner of their application".
During the 20th century, radical politics took political power in many countries across the world. Among these radical leaders were Joseph Stalin in Russia, Mao Zedong in China, Adolf Hitler in Germany, as well as more mainstream radicals such as Ronald Reagan in the United States, and Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom.

Positions

Status quo change

The common feature to all radical political forms is a view that some fundamental change is required of the status quo. For an array of anti-capitalist forms, this manifests in anti-establishment reactions to modern neo-liberal regimes.

Concept of ideology

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes the radical concept of ideology to be that:
This view reflects "a consensus among radicals of all stripes on the role of law as a force to safeguard the unjust relations of the status quo." This radical critique of ideology is especially prominent within post-leftism. Furthermore, in addressing specific issues some radical politics may completely forgo any overarching ideological plan.