Anti-politics, common in many countries, is the aversion of citizens to political institutions and even more so to the elected politicians figures.
This is how the English researcher Colin Hay describes the phenomenon in his book, Why We Hate Politics: "Once something of a bon mot, conjuring a series of broadly positive connotations – typically associating politics with public scrutiny and accountability – ‘politics’ has increasingly become a dirty word. Indeed, to attribute ‘political’ motives to an actor’s conduct is now invariably to question that actor’s honesty, integrity or capacity to deliver an outcome that reflects anything other than his or her material self-interest – often, all three simultaneously."[1]
Another English academic, Gerry Stoker, expresses a similar view: "It is clear that in the eyes of many people politicians are not the best advertisement for politics. Politics is often viewed as a rather grubby and unpleasant feature of modern life. People who take up politics as a trade or a vocation tend to attract more derision than admiration. Politics is something you apologize for, rather than being proud about."[2]
Carl Boggs, an American researcher, describes the phenomenon as well: "Politics has become the most denigrated and devalued of all enterprises, robbed of the visionary, ennobling and transformative qualities that not so long ago were associated with the great popular movements of the 1960s and the 1970s."[3] In fact, "the words 'politics' and 'politicians' have become pejorative terms."[4]
Anti-politics may be manifested in many ways: an ongoing decline in voting participation; an unwillingness of people w