Eva Illouz: Undemocratic Emotions - The Example of Israel

Book presentation by WZB Visiting Research Professor Eva Illouz, on her new Suhrkamp book with Jelena Cupac, Christian von Scheve, Daniel Ziblatt, and Michael Zürn
Is it better for a ruler to be loved or feared? Since the two are difficult to combine, Machiavelli prioritizes fear in Il Principe, his famous treatise on the principles of the reason of state. In her new book published with Suhrkamp, Israeli sociologist Eva Illouz and WZB Visiting Research Professor echoes Machiavelli in two ways: she underscores the importance of emotions in politics and she elaborates on how right-wing populists instrumentalize certain emotions.
Since its founding, the state of Israel has been shaped by security issues more than almost any other country. In this situation, Illouz says, longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has managed to be loved precisely because of the fear he sows. Through extensive interviews with human rights activists and others, Illouz shows in her new Suhrkamp book how fear and resentment divide societies and undermine democracy.