Agora
Sébastien, thank you for joining us! Interest in “tech ideologies” has been growing at an exceptional rate, as evidenced by the many books and articles published about techno-fascism and the…
Matt Sleat, thank you for joining us and congratulations on your new book, Post-Liberalism! I want to begin with a simple question: how do you define post-liberalism? You lay out…
Arnaud, thank you for joining us. Your book Les Lumières sombres, soon to be out in English with Polity, seeks to describe “neo-reactionary thought.” What led you to take an…
Shikha, thank you for joining us for this Agora interview. I wanted to open with a bit of a personal question about your own ideological journey: why did you leave…
Harith, thank you for joining us today. Let’s begin by a personal question on your intellectual trajectory. Could you tell us how your background in Iraq and your training in…
In your book, The Return of the Common Good: The Postliberal Project Right and Left, you treat post-liberalism as a fairly coherent tradition, even if it manifests in different kinds…
Yannis Stavrakakis, thank you for joining us and congratulations on your new book Populist Discourse: Recasting Populism Research! It comes at a time when it feels like the European “populist…
Dirk, you have argued in many articles and in your latest book, The Little Big Number: How GDP Came to Rule the World, and What to Do About It, that…
Quinn Slobodian, thanks for joining us and congratulations on your new book, Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right. The subject of the book is…
Thank you for joining us, Selim. Your book, New Turkey and the Far Right, was recently published. In it, you provide insight into the intellectual and cultural movements underwriting the…
Thank you for joining us, Professor Kuo, and congratulations on your new book The Great Retreat: How Political Parties Should Behave and Why They Don’t. I want to start by…
Thank you for joining us, Hanna, and congratulations on your new book, Apocalyptic Authoritarianism! I want to start by asking you to define the term “apocalyptic authoritarianism”: what kind of…
Thank you for joining us and congratulations on your new book, Borders and Belonging! At the core of the book is your claim that aspects of immigration policy must be…
Thanks for joining us, Marc. Your book, Pax Economica, investigates historical left-wing movements—mostly from the late 19th century to the interwar years—that passionately supported free trade. Before we discuss those,…
Thank you for joining us and congratulations on your latest book, Abortion Rights Backlash: The Struggle for Democracy in Europe and America. I want to start by setting the scene…
Vicente, you recently published The Normalization of the Radical Right: A Norms Theory of Political Supply and Demand. It is an impressive contribution to the field. Could you give our…
Thank you for joining us in this conversation, Jean-François. You have been working for years on the US Right, its evolutions, its interpretation of the international order, and its internationalization.…
Lisa, thank you for joining us. You recently wrote a definitive chapter for the Research Handbook on Populism about the “ideational approach” to populism studies. I want to start there.…
Volodymyr, thank you very much for joining us. Within the first few pages of your book, Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War, you raise the notion of “de-modernization,”…
Valentina Ausserladscheider on the Freedom Party of Austria and Neoliberalism as a Far-right Project
Valentina, thank you for joining us to talk about your book Far-Right Populism and the Making of the Exclusionary Neoliberal State. I wanted to start where you begin the book,…
Michael, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. I want to start with your 2022 article on demobilizing far-right demonstrations and campaigns. In it, you present a…
Dorit, thank you for joining us. I wanted to start with some of your research on Hungary and Viktor Orbán. You’ve written about how the Hungarian state’s authoritarian turn is…
Eva, thank you very much for joining us. I wanted to discuss your book, The Gender Regime of Anti-Liberal Hungary. To start, I want to ask about the label “anti-liberal.”…
Marta, thanks for joining us, and congratulations on your Europe as Ideological Resource: European Integration and Far Right Legitimation in France and Italy. I wanted to start with some definitional…
In your article “Mainstreaming White Supremacy: A Twitter Analysis of the American 'Alt-Right,’” you discuss White identity politics. Some conservatives reject the notion of identity politics, but the so-called Alt-right…
Eviane, in your recent book, The Women of the Far Right, you explore the fascinating world of far-right women who are also influencers. You talk about the parasocial relationship that these women…
Thanks for joining us Bradley and congratulations on your book Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next. I want to start with a…
Thanks for joining us, Michael and Zsuzsanna. I wanted to start with your new book Depleting Democracies: Radical Right Impact on Parties, Policies, and Polities in Eastern Europe. Early on…
Yascha Mounk, thank you for joining us. I wanted to begin with Persuasion, your community on Substack. Why do you think it's important to have this defense of free speech…
To launch the discussion, I was hoping you would talk us through the debate over the causes of right-wing populism, i.e., the supply-side and demand-side explanations. Because academically, I think…
Teun, thank you very much for joining us. Your work has long been located at the intersection of studying racism, ideology, and discourse. I’d like to start there, as you…
Giorgos, you have recently published the insightful Populism in Power: Discourse and Performativity in SYRIZA and Donald Trump. As the title suggests, you conceive of populism as “a performative mode…
Rogers, unlike some scholars of populism, you define populism along two dimensions: the vertical, characterized by inequality between groups, and the horizontal, describing the differences between insiders and outsiders. Can you…
Zsolt, thank you very much for joining us. You have just published a working paper entitled “Ideologies of Autocratization.” In it, you point to the various ideologies that underlay autocratization…
James, you’ve made a great contribution to the discourse on populism’s relationship with democracy, noting that the election of populists decreases non-populist voters’ satisfaction with democracy. As you and your…
In your May 2020 article, “Alt-Virilities: Masculinism, Rhizomatics, and the Contradictions of the American Alt-Right” you discuss the lack of research on masculine elements of fascist movements. What is masculinism…
Daniel, you have recently published a paper on the relationship between authoritarianism and wanting to leave the EU. Can you summarize for us the main findings? The paper builds on…
Petra, you're currently working on a sort of meta-literature review on populism and pandemic, can you give us a 'preview' of what the main findings are? With Mattia Zulianello (University…
Benjamin, you are an ethnomusicologist by training. How did you move from ethnomusicology to studying the far right and the role of music in far-right culture? Do you think we…
Charlotte, you just released your new book, Far Out: Encounters with Extremists, a fascinating dive into the extremist realm. One of the themes that emerges from your encounters is a…
Natalie, your research on political geographies has brought you closer to the study of authoritarianism and/or illiberalism. In the recent collective volume you edited, Spatializing Authoritarianism, you write about the…
Philipp, you just published Post-Liberal Statebuilding in Central Asia. Imagineries, Discourses, and Practices of Social Ordering. Could you first tell why post-liberalism seems to you the right conceptual framework to…
Levente, you have been working on populism both in Europe and in the US. Let’s begin with your research on political psychology. You look at the sometimes conspiratorial nature of…
Marc, France has just entered a new political phase, with Emmanuel Macron embarking on his second term in office. But some weeks later he did not succeed to obtain the…
Jack, you just published On Microfascism. Can you begin by giving us a definition of the term? How is it different from previously conceived notions of fascism? Most studies of…
Halil, you have just published a great chapter on Turkey in the Routledge Handbook of Illiberalism. Oftentimes, we tend to use several concepts such as populism, illiberalism, and authoritarianism simultaneously,…
Vít, you have been working on political transformations in Central Europe. In Differential Illiberalism: Classifying Illiberal Trends in Central European Party Politics, you explain that each Central European country has…
Bruno, you have published The Revenge of History (La revanche de l’histoire), a book devoted to the role of the past in today’s world. Do you see the “return of…
Tanja and Michael, you work on the liberal script and its contestations. How do you see Russia’s war against Ukraine impacting the field of liberalism? Some, like Francis Fukuyama, seem…
In Sisters in Hate, you discuss the “soft power” that women bring to the hate movement. What are the different ways women’s soft power contributes to the hate movement and…
Rada, you have been an acute observer of our societies’ transformations for decades. I would like to begin our discussion by looking at Russia’s war against Ukraine. How does the…
In 2020, you published a reference book, Reactionary Democracy. How Racism and the Populist Far Right Became Mainstream. Let’s begin by discussing a methodological and epistemological question. In your book,…
You have been working on illiberal movements and populism in Latin America. In your article “The Rise of the Contentious Right,” co-authored with Alejandro Peña, you talk about the ways…
Joshua, you work on U.S. conservative intellectual traditions. In a recent Twitter thread you offer that the right’s power will remain potent for the next couple decades—at least. Can you…
How profoundly is Russia's war against Ukraine transforming Europe? As I write this, it is already the 25th day of Russia's brutal war against Ukraine. The world is admiring the incredible…
Ruth, you have been working for years on populism from a linguistic and semiotic perspective–an approach that remains under-studied in the global political science-oriented discussions on populism. You recently published…
Andrea, you have been working for years on gender and populism/illiberalism, and more recently on issues of academic freedom in illiberal environments. Let’s begin with a broad question. In your…
Steven, you have been working for years on media ecosystems and their role in our liberal democracies. You recently co-edited The Disinformation Age in 2019 and are currently leading a…
Marco, in your book The Patchwork City: Class, Space, and Politics in Metro Manila, you discuss how neoliberal reforms have impacted the Philippine middle class and reshaped urban social structures…
In a recent article, you compare Israel, Poland, and Hungary, looking at measures directed at limiting the power of the judiciary and civil society. What are the main differences and…
Your book, Extreme Reactions: Radical Right Mobilization in Eastern Europe, seeks to explain why there is strong support in Eastern Europe for radical right parties. Could you expand a little…
Stijn, you work on populism, Euroscepticism, and pro-European activism. Let’s begin by discussing the relationship of populist parties with the European Union. How has Brexit influenced European populists when it came…
Daniele, you have been working on Italian populist and radical right movements and recently co-authored Populism in Europe: Lessons from Umberto Bossi’s Northern League. Can we begin by discussing what…
Hilary, you recently published with your Brown University doctoral student, Svenja Kopyciok an article on left-wing xenophobia in Europe and, counter-intuitively, you found a surprisingly large share of those who…
Mabel, I would like to begin with a broad question on your global approach, as your work has focused on the link between cultural and political sociology. Your first book…
Emmy, let’s start with a question about the broad conceptual framework on which your work is based, namely the role of emotions in politics and its connection to populism. Could…
Anna, you have been working for several years on political parties, political competition, and parties exiting from the communist system. What is the role of ideology in this transformation and…
Reece, you published a few years ago Fox Populism. Branding Conservatism as Working Class, a major piece on research on the transformation of rightist political culture in the US. In…
Armando, you have been working on democratization; democratic decay, populism and authoritarianism; and the role of global powers such as Russia and China in Latin American politics. Let’s begin with…
Jim, you just edited Contemporary Far-Right Thinkers and the Future of Liberal Democracy with Alejandro Castrillon.* Could you tell us the story behind the project and what you were aiming…
Much of your work has focused on Hungary, particularly on the weakening of democratic values under Viktor Orbán. Your article, Explaining Eastern Europe: Orbán's Laboratory of Illiberalism, makes the claim…
Jürgen, a decade ago you co-authored Give Jesus a Hand! Charismatic Christians: Populist Religion and Politics in the Philippines. A decade later, how has charismatic Christianity evolved in the Philippines?…
Tuğçe and Emre, in your research on populism in Turkey, you insist on the construction of a “we-ness” in order to mobilize voters. In today’s Turkey, who is the “we,” the…
Elżbieta, you have been working on the intersection of gender and politics in Poland. To begin with a broad question, do you see in the rise of right-wing populism—as embodied…
Cynthia, you have been working on many different aspects of far-right culture, but I would like us to begin with your seminal Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far…
Fabio, you work on the role of lawyers in building illiberalism. We tend to see lawyers as the victims of illiberal governance. Yet in one of your latest articles, “From…
Melani, in The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals, you invite the reader to move outside of the U.S. case to capture the incredible…
Paris, you have been working on the notion of populism for years, and in a major article, you refute the vision of populism as a (thin) ideology in favor of…
In your book Populism and Liberal Democracy: A Comparative and Theoretical Analysis (Oxford, 2019), you speak of democratic illiberalism, thereby reversing the terms used in Zakaria’s famous text on illiberal…
Phillip, in “Revealing the Alt-Right: Exploring Alt-Right History, Thinkers and Ideas for Public Officials,” you discuss how the slow death of “fusional” mainstream conservatism has resulted in the explosion of…
In your research on Central Europe, you criticized the way in which scholars have assumed, based on rational and historical institutionalist arguments, that the region would democratize. Have we missed…
Jose Javier, you have been working on Spain and Portugal and on their military culture. I would like to begin our discussion with a broad question on that legacy. Do you…
Paweł, the literature on democratic backsliding tends to underplay the role of media as structurally altering political dynamics. You have been researching the articulation between media and the rise of…
Zsolt, you recently co-authored a significant article, “The ‘Insecurity Toolbox’ of the Illiberal Regime: Rule by Law and Rule by Exclusion,” that explains the three key securitization mechanisms used by…
Aliaksei, you have been working for several years on Slovak populist parties. Can you briefly tell us about their similarities to—and differences from—those in the other Central European countries? Slovakia…
Tímea and Agnieszka, you will soon be publishing Illiberal Constitutionalism in Poland and Hungary: The Deterioration of Democracy, Misuse of Human Rights and Abuse of the Rule of Law (Routledge).…
You have been working, both together and individually, on the political economy of populism. Could you tell us why you think this understudied aspect of populism is key to understanding…
You have been working in the framework of the English School on the transformation of the world order and the structuring of authoritarian and/or illiberal regimes, looking at the case…
You have both been working for several years on the concept of biopolitics as applied to Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia. Can we talk about the rise of an…
Christophe Jaffrelot on the Transformation of India into an Illiberal Democracy, the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, and Modi’s National-Populism as India’s Upper-Class Counter-Revolution
Jérôme, you worked for a long time on the populist tradition in the United States. Can you tell us its main defining characteristics on the Republican spectrum? There is a…
Would you qualify Israel as an “illiberal democracy,” i.e., as a country that has functional democratic institutions but where public opinion is shifting toward illiberal values? Israel is a hybrid…
Václav and Sabina, you run a research project called The Illiberal Turn. As our program is called the Illiberalism Studies Program, I first would like your assessment of the term—adjective…
Your new book, Age of Iron: On Conservative Nationalism, defines conservative nationalism as one of the central features of the Republican Party’s culture over decades. Could you briefly summarize for…
You have been following jihadism for several years, trying to disentangle the personal trajectory of jihadists and our ideological (mis)reading of the reasons for their engagement. Could you tell us…
David, you just published Russia’s New Authoritarianism. Putin and the Politics of Order . You explain that the Russian regime has been articulating a “chaos versus order” narrative as one of its…
Our program uses the term of illiberalism. It defines it as a strain of political culture that, over the past two decades, has emerged in response to liberalism as experienced by various…
You have been following the political situation in France very closely for several decades. How do you see the evolution of the National Rally? Is the ‘normalization’ process successful, especially…
