Rhetoric of Hybrid Concepts

Abstract

Many now common compound concepts of political language are historically interesting results of initially opposite concepts. ‘Popular sovereignty’ or ‘representative democracy’ are well-known examples of such ‘hybrid’ concepts, but by closer inspection almost any compound concepts can be dissolved to units, the combination of which has by no means been easy to achieve. For this reason it is worth taking a closer interest in the origins of such concepts. First, we can discuss the historical contexts in which they have been launched or gained plausibility among the addressed. Secondly, we can direct attention to the rhetorical schemes or figures that make the combination of opposed ideal types possible. The classical figure to enable such initially unbelievable moves is oxymoron, which nonetheless can be identified in the justification of many concepts, say for example ‘Christian democracy’. Another scheme, which has contributed to the shifting normative tone of concepts, is paradiastole, in the sense of changing vices into virtues. It lies the origins of many ism concepts, such as Victor Hugo’s adoption of parlementarisme, used pejoriatively by Louis Bonaparte. Not all such attempts to such concepts are successful – the Communist duplication ‘people’s democracy‘ could be quoted here, but also they and other experimental balloons to lauch hybrid concepts are worth closer studies.