Pashinyan stipulated that he did not fall into the conservatism-liberalism continuum, that the discourse on the various “-isms” that defined traditional political ideology is no longer applicable to the politics of the contemporary, globalizing world. Utilizing the epistemic tools of post-modernism, Pashinyan collapsed the conservatism-liberalism dichotomy: he did not subscribe to the ideological rigidity of any of the “-isms,” but rather embraced the very deconstruction of this dichotomy. Noting the lack of tenability in ideological rigidity, Pashinyan constructed the paradigmatic lens of his ideology through fluidity. More simply, whatever ideological “-ism” he may subscribe to, this subscription would not be rigid and inflexible, but rather, it will be fluid and accommodating. Well, so far so good, but again, how can we qualify and understand what exactly defines Pashinyan’s political ideology? To do so, we turn to French politics, that is, the extent to which Pashinyan is borrowing from the political ideology of France’s young President Emmanuel Macron.

Very much like Pashinyan, Macron is a young leader who was unexpectedly swept into power within a very short amount of time, thus facing the Herculean task of staving off the old, entrenched political interests, while at the same time meeting the very high expectations of a vibrant, dynamic society. Clearly French society is extremely different than Armenian society, whether in development, economic might, geopolitical issues, or in global stature; but the comparison here is not between the two countries or political systems, but rather, in the approaches by the two leaders. To a substantive level, Pashinyan has been emulating Macron, and doing so quite successfully. This successful emulation, then, has allowed us to cogently qualify what Pashinyan’s political ideology is, and more specifically, what it entails. Macron’s general ideational goals have posited emphasis on three main areas: reforming existing institutions, undertaking active and intense multilateralism, and extolling the soft power of French culture. These perimeters that shape his political ideology, Macron has labelled as “radical centrism.” As we will see, to a very large extent, the Pashinyan government has, in broad terms, emulated these grand strategies. In this context, if we are seeking to figure out what the political ideology of the Pashinyan government is, it quite simply falls within the confines of radical centrism.

Radical centrism, however, may come off as contradictory to many observers, for radicalism has connotations of being extreme, and as such, how can anything that is extreme be centrist? Macron, however, does not use the term “radical” as an adjective that explains his centrism (that, indeed, would be contradictory), but rather, he uses the term “radical” as a verb. Namely, “radical” explains the level and intensity of activity that his government will take to advance the ideological and policy goals of centrism. To avoid any confusions or analytical misunderstandings, we will re-label this ideological posturing for the Pashinyan Administration as “aggressive centrism.” Thus, Nikol Pashinyan’s political ideology, the one that collapsed the conservative-liberal continuum, the one that rejected the traditional rigidity of “-isms”, and the one that much of Armenia’s current political forces have difficulty in understanding, can best be defined as “aggressive centrism.”