400017 SE Anti-Liberalism, Illiberalism, Neoliberalism (2024W)

This advanced theory seminar examines the ideational and institutional currents underpinning radical right movements, especially in Europe and the Global North. It is organized along four premises.

The first is that it is imperative to understand contemporary trends in radical rightwing politics by examining the historical legacies and intellectual traditions which underlie them. Therefore, the seminar will include reading and discussing primary texts (and speeches) by founding illiberal, neoliberal, and anti-liberal thinkers, ranging from interwar critics of liberalism, the New Right, and Hayekian neoliberalism, and current Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The second premise is that important distinctions exist between neoliberalism, anti-liberalism, and illiberalism, as factions on the radical right which can ally, but also have been at times fierce competitors. Therefore, each strand must be understood in its own right.

A third premise is that examining the place of gender, sexuality, and race/racism within these groupings tells us a good deal about their distinct political-ideological projects, and also where they align.

A fourth premise is that there is a wide gap between these ideologies as they were (and are) articulated by key intellectuals, versus the reality of how they have unfolded in actually-existing politics. For example, we will read directly work by key interwar neoliberal intellectual, Friedrich Hayek, and will compare his highly theoretical and abstract ideas to how they have been implemented in practice, and transformed since the 1980s.