Deciphering Donald Trump with Mannheim (via Hayden White) and Bobbio: A Peculiar Ideological Interpretation

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Gabriel C. Gherasim

Abstract

The present paper purports to investigate how the views, actions and behaviors of one of the most extraordinary presidential figures of contemporary politics, Donald Trump, could stand the test of an ideological interpretation. To this end, I aim to decipher the baffling, controversial and essentially erratic ideological positioning of the former US president by instrumentalizing two suggestive theoretical undertakings of the concept of political ideology. The first rejuvenates Karl Mannheim’s understanding of the concept of ideology, via its more contextually appropriate and historically accurate reading in Hayden White’s stand-out work Metahistory. The second puts into use Norberto Bobbio’s concept of the "included middle" on Mannheim’s – via White – ideological axis. Accordingly, in line with the present approach, a peculiar ideological interpretation explains Donald Trump’s mostly idiosyncratic stances during the two presidential campaigns and his administration, following three tracks of understanding Trump’s included-middle ideological forays.

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How to Cite
Gherasim, Gabriel C. 2021. “Deciphering Donald Trump With Mannheim (via Hayden White) and Bobbio: A Peculiar Ideological Interpretation”. AMERICANA E-Journal of American Studies in Hungary 17 (1). https://iskolakultura.hu/index.php/americanaejournal/article/view/45459.
Section
Essays
Author Biography

Gabriel C. Gherasim

Gabriel C. Gherasim is lecturer within the Department of International Relations and German Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He holds a PhD in philosophy, an MA in cultural studies, and a BA in political science. He published two books dedicated to the American philosopher Arthur C. Danto’s analytic philosophy and aesthetics and more than 40 articles in national and international academic journals. His last book Americanisms: An Inquiry into the Development of Political Ideologies in the USA stands for a thorough investigation of American political ideologies in their historical development. He is member of the International Exchange Alumni (US Department of State, Washington DC), and member of the European and Romanian Association of American Studies. Email: gabriel.gherasim@ubbcluj.ro