Solidarity and Politics

This chapter describes the relevance of the concept of solidarity in the political sphere. It discusses the relevance of the notion of solidarity in political competition and the advantages of selecting political uses of the term as the focus of the study. The chapter starts with a general overview of political competition over attractive concepts and ideas and shows that solidarity is subjected to such competition as well. It discusses features of the concept that make it an attractive term to use for political parties. The reasons for rhetorical and programmatic attractiveness of the concept are elaborated, as well as the ways in which different ideological camps (and their respective party representation) understand and reframe solidarity, so that it fits their broader ideological frameworks. The chapter also includes an overview of earlier research into political uses and meanings of solidarity and provides evidence justifying the treatment of it as both left- and right-wing concept. Finally, the cleavage theory (Lipset and Rokkan, 1967) is discussed in more detail, and the link between the opening-up of the cleavage structure and the expansion of meanings and applications of solidarity is theorized.