Tracing the Flows of Populism within the Global Rise of the Right

• In Event: 2129 - Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 6. Populism and Revolution

Abstract

I argue that the historical cases of populism in Europe, Latin America, and the U.S., contribute to an understanding of the rise of ultraright politics in the three respective regions. Populism is here defined either as a “discourse” following Ernesto Laclau, a type of “persuasive rhetoric” for Michael Kazin, or a “thin ideology” with Cas Mudde – that pits ordinary people against elites, seeks to mobilize the former against the latter, and oscillates ambiguously in its world view, both across cases and within them, between emancipatory radical left politics and illiberal ethno-nativist projects. I designate, for our purposes here, those movements and administrations, which utilize this discourse, as populist. The first cases of populist movements emerging in Europe and the U.S. in the mid-nineteenth century, and the advent of populist administrations during the 1930s and 40s in Latin America provide insight not only into the general “ideological character” of the populist movements and administrations that develop in those regions, they also provide insight into potential causal-frameworks for understanding the current decline in left political administrations around the world. In short, the rise of a rightward-leaning populism in the U.S. and in Europe, coupled with the decline of left populism in Latin America has a direct correlation with the global rise of the right. More troubling are the emerging coalitions and alliances across regions, including a persistent alt-right across Europe and the States, and a shared vision between Putin, Trump, Orbán, Assad, Modi, and Bolsonaro.

Author

• Ritchie Savage, Pratt Institute