Hannah Arendt and Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich produced influential accounts of the postwar West-German population's silence or inarticuleteness. The Mitscherlichs claimed that this silence was symptomatic of a blocked process of mourning; Arendt saw it as a legacy of brutal totalitarian rule. However, both viewed the rapid economic recovery as evidence of the German inability to engage in discursively mediated therapeutic and political processes. Frantic busyness was a form of silence. This paper presents a critical reassessment of these approaches. By drawing on Albert Hirschman's theory of exit and voice, it argues that economic activity possesses a communicative dimension. The alleged retreat from politics is not a symptom of muteness but rather indicates people's preference for an alternative mode of communication. Arendt and the Mitscherlich may be right in assuming a correlation between the postwar economic recovery and ostensible political apathy, but lack the conceptual means to clarify the relationship.
Search Results
You are looking at 1 - 2 of 2 items for :
- "EXIT AND VOICE" x
- Refine by Access: All content x
- Refine by Content Type: All x
Jakob Norberg
In German Politics and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2011
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 1–20 (19 total)
Against Analogy
Why Analogical Arguments in Support of Workplace Democracy Must Necessarily Fail
Roberto Frega
view on the pros and cons of arguments by analogy. 22 The argument is based on Albert Hirschman's well known distinction between exit and voice ( Hirschman, 1970 ), and contends that authority can be legitimated either through voice or exit. Insofar
In Democratic Theory
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2020
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 1–26 (26 total)