The political carnival and the culture of political elites – review of the book by P.L. Karabushchenko "Carnival Political Culture" (2022)

Abstract

The recently observed increase in the carnival political culture primarily affects the behaviour of ruling political elites of the so-called "Collective West". First of all, it is manifested in the penetration of elements of absurdity and political deviation into political practice, which has an impact on the sharp decrease of the quality of professional competence of the elites and their leaders. In the media these "politicians" have long been associated with expressions such as "political clown", "political buffoon", and his team is a kind of "theatre of the absurd", etc., which describe such irresponsible behaviour from an extremely negative point of view.

This study is the first in the scientific literature to systematically address not only the contemporary features of carnival political culture, but also to thoroughly examine its historical roots. It is the first monograph to analyse the essence of political carnival and carnival political culture. It is the analysis of this work that this review is devoted to.