By MICHAEL LOWY*
Prologue to the book by Miguel Urbán Crespo
The spectacular rise of the far right has become a global phenomenon in recent decades, one that is increasingly growing and spreading in the face of the crisis of liberal democracies. In fact, what could be defined as “Trumpism” has suffered serious electoral defeats in recent years, as exemplified by the cases of Brazil and the United States, but it still maintains considerable influence and continues to actively work to regain power.
Furthermore, in Europe, it governs, in different ways, in Hungary, Poland and Italy, and represents a serious electoral and political threat in France, Spain and Germany. If we look at Chile, we see that supporters of Pinochet’s José Antonio Kast won the elections to the Constituent Council. There are numerous examples in many parts of the world: India (Narendra Modi), Turkey (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan), Israel (Benjamin Netanyahu), etc.
So far, most studies on this topic have been limited to case studies in just one country. There is little serious research that attempts to address the phenomenon on a global scale. Miguel Urbán Crespo’s brilliant essay is, without a doubt, one of the most comprehensive, in-depth and up-to-date works published to date, at least those that emerge from a political and activist perspective. His radical, anti-fascist and anti-capitalist point of view is not a limitation, but rather a fundamental condition for understanding the logic of reactionary authoritarianism, as well as for thinking about ways to combat it.
As Miguel Urbán points out, this is not just a resurrection of the old fascism of the 1930s, but something new, even if we find in it some traces of classical fascism. The term “Trumpism” attempts to highlight this innovative component, while understanding that the reactionary wave can take very different forms from the American model.
Their common characteristics would be, in the author's opinion: authoritarian nationalism, xenophobia, demagogic, sexist, Islamophobic (except in its fundamentalist Islamic manifestations), anti-Semitic (except in cases of Zionist neo-fascism) and climate denial. We could add some other adjectives: homophobic, racist, conspiracy theorist, anti-communist (or anti-left in all its meanings) etc.
In addition to the multiple forms that they can take depending on the country and culture: neo-imperialism, illiberalism, punitive or exclusionary populism, religious fundamentalism… However, to be honest, I don’t like the term “populism”, which generates more confusion than clarity; I prefer the other concept that Miguel Urban uses to refer to punitive and exclusionary policies (the wall on the border): necropolitics.
To define this extreme right, I personally use the term “neofascism,” which emphasizes both its difference and similarity to historical fascism. The concept proposed by Miguel Urbán, “reactionary authoritarianism,” seems perfectly appropriate to me. It brings together two of the main characteristics of the phenomenon, common to its various manifestations despite their obvious differences, which helps explain the recent emergence of the “Frankenstein” of the extreme right.
The author's main hypothesis is that the crisis of the capitalist system, as well as the emergence of increasingly authoritarian neoliberal policies that are far removed from the liberal democracies established after the Second World War, created the conditions for the emergence of antidemocratic illiberalism and reactionary authoritarianism, which in no way question the neoliberal economic paradigm.
I consider this analysis to be very accurate, as long as we do not confuse the two phenomena: Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump represent two radically different political forms, even though they have some common traits, starting with the fact that they both share a blind faith in neoliberalism. Another hypothesis that I find interesting is the one proposed by Daniel Bensaïd a few years ago: neoliberal capitalist globalization, by weakening nation states, provokes “identity panics” that are exploited by the far right.
Both ideas are based on another of the most interesting contributions of the book you have in your hands, that is, the analysis of the mechanisms used by “Trumpism”: fake news, the culture wars (“death to Woke!”), conspiracy theories, as well as terrorism. Some of these methods were already used by classical fascism, but now they take on new, unprecedented forms, such as the massive use of social networks – formerly radio, in the case of Nazism or Italian fascism – to implement the authoritarian framework.
How can we resist this global reactionary wave? Miguel Urbán recognizes that there is no magic recipe for confronting this indispensable fight, but he refers to some important victories – even if sometimes ephemeral – against neo-fascism and the extreme right: the dissolution of Golden Dawn in Greece, the advances of the great feminist movements in Chile and Poland, the emergence of Black Lives Matter in the United States etc.
This book is ultimately a valuable tool for understanding and combating – from the philosophy of Marxist praxis, both are inseparable – the emergence of the reactionary international.
*Michae Lowy is director of research in sociology at Center nationale de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). Author, among other books, of Franz Kafka unsubmissive dreamer (Cem Cabeças Publisher) [https://amzn.to/3VkOlO1]
Reference
Miguel Urban Crespo. Trumpisms: neoliberal and authoritarian – an x-ray of the radical right. Usina Editorial, 2025, 312 pages. Translated by Valerio Arcary. [https://amzn.to/3FzxRgO]
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