Neoliberalism and Right-wing Populism: Conceptual Analogies

Pühringer, Stephan; Ötsch, Walter

doi:10.1080/07360932.2018.1451765

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The Trump administration, one of the richest and most elitist governments in the history of the USA with respect to the socioeconomic pedigree of the president and his state secretaries, appears to play this game. However, although there might be conceptual analogies between right-wing populism and neoliberal market fundamentalism (as the basis of meritocratic economic and social policies; see Pühringer and Ötsch 2018), this kind of anti-elitism on the part of the elite resembles a "riding the tiger" strategy-a strategy that Karl Polanyi in The Great Transformation saw as responsible for the rise of fascism (Polanyi 1944, 242). Let's hope that history will not repeat itself.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Welfare State and Liberal Democracy: A Political Economy Approach

Heise¹,

Khan²

2019

World Review of Political Economy

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This paper attempts to shed some light on the developments of welfare states in highly developed nations since World War Two (WW2) within the context of a narrative which seeks to combine institutional distinctions, termed "varieties of capitalism," with the historical regimes of regulation theory in a political economy perspective which puts interested political actors at centre stage. It will be argued that in a liberal democracy, the elite has the framing and agenda-setting power to "manufacture a political will" according to its interests. The welfare state is not the result of a long social struggle on the part of the needy; rather, it results in its general features from the minimal state of meritocratic exigencies. Under the very peculiar circumstances of the post-WW2 era, this even translated into a rise in social welfare spending to more than a third of national income. The particular design of welfare state organisation was the subject-matter of political conflict, and a clear distinction between liberal and coordinated market economies can be attributed to cultural differences and institutional settings. Yet the core of the welfare state conception serves the interest of the meritocracy as much as those who benefit from social programmes and redistribution. And the neoliberal attack on the welfare state since the 1980s is not a necessary re-calibration due to changing economic conditions or a growing lack of solidarity among the people but an expression of a modified cost-benefit analysis from the elite's perspective.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Welfare State and Liberal Democracy: A Political Economy Approach

Heise¹,

Khan²

2019

World Review of Political Economy

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“…Antiestablishment populism may in some cases adopt extreme orthodox economic precepts (Havertz, 2019). Conceptual similarities between right-wing populism and market fundamentalism can be identified through a strict categorical division of the world into two countervailing parts, the first based on identity-related factors and the second on the socioeconomic ordering (Pühringer and Ötsch, 2018: 193). The illiberal commonalities of these dichotomizations underlie different contemporary authoritarian neoliberal political currents (200).…”

Section: The Politics Of Authoritarian Neoliberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between Markets and Barracks: The Economic Policy Narrative of Brazilian Authoritarianism

Søndergaard¹

2023

Latin American Perspectives

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In recent years, a series of right-wing populists has ascended to power in both the Global North and the Global South. While these leaders frequently have provided challenges to liberal democracy, neoliberal modes of economic governance have often been part of their agendas. Analysis of the economic policy narrative of the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s electoral campaign in 2018 through the theoretical lens of authoritarian neoliberalism reveals that it has worked by the relegation of economic matters to technocratic management outside the sphere of democratic debate and the instrumentalized estrangement of groups and institutions opposed to his political views. Recentemente, uma série de populistas direitistas têm chegado ao poder tanto nos países do norte como naqueles do sul. Enquanto estes lideres frequentemente apresentam desafios às democrâcias liberais, modos neoliberais de governança econômica muitas vezes desempenham um papel nas suas agendas. Uma análise da narrativa da política econômica na campanha presidencial do Presidente Jair Bolsonaro no Brasil em 2018 mediante uma visão teorética de neoliberalismo autoritário indica que ela funcionou pela relegação de assuntos econômicos a gestores tecnocrâticos que ficam fora da esféra de debate democrâtico e pelo afastamento instrumentalizado de grupos e instituições que se opõem às idéias políticas de Bolsonaro.

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“…However, such measures have faced sustained attacks for more than four decades by a Republican Party determined to undo them (Gritter 2018;Dickinson 2019). While the GOP is not alone in its ardent embrace of neoliberalism (the Democratic Party occasionally suffers from this phenomenon too), it does promote neoliberalism as an ideology and set of political practices far more openly than any other party in the Western world (Pühringer and Ötsch 2018), particularly under President Donald Trump (Lachmann 2019). The social safety net has been steadily degraded by design (Abramovitz et al 2020).…”

Section: Varieties Of Capitalism and American Neoliberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Coronavirus Pandemic and American Neoliberalism

Warf¹

2021

Geographical Review

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This essay explores how the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the glaring weaknesses of the American neoliberal order. In early 2021, the U.S., with 4% of the world's population, suffered 20% of the world's covid-19 cases. The paper examines the factors that made the U.S. uniquely vulnerable to the pandemic: hyper-individualism, high levels of religiosity, ignorance of science, generalized distrust of the government, and the fetishization of the market. These forces produced a society with high levels of income inequality, a tattered social safety net, lack of universal health coverage, a large prison population, and vast numbers of the homeless. The health care crisis gave rise to an economic crisis. Low income communities and people of color are particularly vulnerable. The structural deficiencies of American neoliberalism are exacerbated by the corruption, indifference, and incompetence of the Trump administration, which failed to take the pandemic seriously. Lack of testing, pastors defying social distancing guidelines, forcing low wage workers back to work and the touting of fraudulent cures such as hydroxychloroquine illustrate what happens when a conservative society unused to inconvenience encounters an unseen foe that replicates itself with devastating efficiency.

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Neoliberalism and Right-wing Populism: Conceptual Analogies

Cited by 12 publications

References 17 publications

The Welfare State and Liberal Democracy: A Political Economy Approach

The Welfare State and Liberal Democracy: A Political Economy Approach

Between Markets and Barracks: The Economic Policy Narrative of Brazilian Authoritarianism

The Coronavirus Pandemic and American Neoliberalism

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