Does the Past Have Political Power?

This paper theorizes the concept of “legacy” as a dynamic relationship between present circumstances, collective memory and institutional structures.  Looking at the present crises that beset the European polity, it develops a heuristic typology “consolidation regime” to explore the impact of the past upon current politics. This analysis builds off earlier work by the author on illiberal politics of various forms, extending the discussion to the most recent crisis and elaborating the theoretical model.  Cases to be examined include France, Italy and England.