(iPoster) The Brink: Neoliberal Alienation, Reactionary Populism, and the Fall into Fascism

• In Event: Poster Session: Democracy and Autocracy II & Health Politics and Health Policy
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Democracy and Autocracy II

Abstract

This article examines how right-wing authoritarian populism facilitates the transformation from neoliberalism to fascism. It argues that neoliberalism’s systemic erosion of the social contract has created a crisis of democracy, enabling the rise of fascist movements. These movements exploit real and perceived working class grievances, leveraging them to establish exclusionary “us” versus “them” politics, delineating righteous in- and demonized out-groups. This study contends that the neoliberal prioritization of capital accumulation inexorably produces easily exploited economic precarity, political disenfranchisement, and social anxiety, which right-authoritarian populists leverage to legitimize fascist politics. To stymie and further prevent fascist movements, it argues for the immediate necessity of robust, inclusive, pro-labor political movements that address the structural deficiencies of neoliberalism. This article concludes by asserting that the preservation of democracy requires not only resisting fascism, but fundamentally rejecting the neoliberal order that has delivered it.

Author

• Michael Giammasi, Thomas Jefferson University