{"id":1008665,"date":"2025-04-16T11:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T11:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/?p=1008665"},"modified":"2025-04-16T11:28:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T11:28:00","slug":"authoritarian-populism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/en\/authoritarian-populism\/","title":{"rendered":"AUTHORITARIAN POPULISM"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Jaime Roque<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n\n\t

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Authoritarian populism (AP) is a sociopolitical transformation of the capitalist state based on weakening democratic institutions through popular consent. Stuart Hall originally coined the term to characterize the political project of Thatcherism. More than a rhetorical device used by charismatic leaders in search of electoral support, Hall understood AP as a field of ideological struggle where a wide array of conservative social and political forces aimed to shift state power towards \u201cauthoritarianism\u201d following the breakdown of the post-war Keynesian consensus. For Hall, those forces succeeded by developing a discursive repertoire that articulated \u201cfree market\u201d doctrines (i.e. competitive individualism over collective welfare) with moral panics (e.g. the fear of immigrants, trade-unions and youth subcultures) to impose a reactionary sense of crisis unto \u201cthe people\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Inspired by Antonio Gramsci\u2019s concept of hegemony, Hall engaged with Marxist theories like Louis Althusser\u2019s conceptualization of ideological state apparatuses and Ernesto Laclau\u2019s theorization of populism as a discursive articulation of popular identities. Hall critically contributed to these perspectives by demonstrating that it was not only \u201cpublic\u201d (i.e. the state and political parties) but also \u201cprivate\u201d (e.g. neoliberal think-tanks and the mass media) apparatuses that had shifted the whole political spectrum to the right and, by neutralizing the emancipatory potential of populism, harnessed the \u201cpopular\u201d idiom of the \u201cpeople\/power bloc\u201d contradiction to the practices of the dominant classes. In this sense, AP compliments Nicos Poulantzas\u2019 concept of authoritarian statism (AS), which, according to Hall, accurately captured the state\u2019s evolution towards disciplinary power but not the ideological struggles that aimed to exploit the contradictions of the social-democratic left in power.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bob Jessop <\/span>et al.<\/span><\/i> (1988) argued that AP is too focused on ideological mobilization to the detriment of an institutional analysis of governmental power. Notwithstanding this relevant critique, various authors have argued that taken together AP and AS constitute the two most important analytical tools to map the history of Thatcherism and its enduring legacy in \u201cThird Way\u201d politics. More recently, they are also held as valuable tools to examine what has been classified as \u201cauthoritarian neoliberalism\u201d (Bruff 2014). They allow to map the intersection between neoliberal and neoconservative political rationalities and to understand how authoritarian ideas and practices normally attributed to the far-right have always been integrated in the historical trajectory of the neoliberal state.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Related References<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

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Althusser, Louis. 2008 [1971]. <\/span>On Ideology<\/span><\/i>. London: Verso.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown, Wendy. 2006. \u00abAmerican Nightmare: Neoliberalism, Neoconservatism, and De-Democratization\u00bb. <\/span>Political Theory<\/span><\/i> 34 (6): 690\u2013714. <\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0090591706293016<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bruff, Ian. 2014. \u00abThe Rise of Authoritarian Neoliberalism\u00bb. <\/span>Rethinking Marxism<\/span><\/i> 26 (1): 113\u201329. <\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/08935696.2013.843250<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gramsci, Antonio. 2012 [1971]. <\/span>Selections From The Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci<\/span><\/i>. Edited by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. London: Lawrence & Wishart.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hall, Stuart. 1983. \u00abThatcherism – Rolling Back the Welfare State\u00bb. <\/span>Thesis Eleven<\/span><\/i> 7 (1): 6\u201319. <\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/072551368300700102<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014. 1988a. <\/span>The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left<\/span><\/i>. London: Verso.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014. 1988b. \u00abThe Toad in the Garden: Thatcherism among the Theorists\u00bb. In <\/span>Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture<\/span><\/i>, edited by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, 35\u201357. London: Macmillan Education.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014. 2011. \u00abThe Neo-Liberal Revolution\u00bb. <\/span>Cultural Studies<\/span><\/i> 25 (6): 705\u201328. <\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/09502386.2011.619886<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hall, Stuart, Chas Critcher, Tony Jefferson, John Clarke, and Brian Roberts. 1978. <\/span>Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order<\/span><\/i>. London: Macmillan.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hall, Stuart, and Alan O\u2019Shea. 2013. \u00abCommon-sense Neoliberalism\u00bb. <\/span>Soundings<\/span><\/i>, n.<\/span>o<\/span> 55: 8\u201324.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hay, Colin. 1995. \u00abRethinking Crisis: Narratives of the New Right and Constructions of Crisis\u00bb. <\/span>Rethinking Marxism<\/span><\/i> 8 (2): 60\u201376. <\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/08935699508685442<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jessop, Bob. 2015. \u00abMargaret Thatcher and Thatcherism: Dead But Not Buried\u00bb. <\/span>British Politics<\/span><\/i> 10 (1): 16\u201330. <\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1057\/bp.2014.22<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jessop, Bob, Kevin Bonnett, Simon Bromley, and Tom Ling. 1988. <\/span>Thatcherism: A Tale of Two Nations<\/span><\/i>. Polity Press.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Laclau, Ernesto. 1977. <\/span>Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory: Capitalism, Fascism, Populism<\/span><\/i>. London: NLB.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Laclau, Ernesto, and Chantal Mouffe. 2001 [1985]. <\/span>Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics<\/span><\/i>. 2nd Edition. London: Verso.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Poulantzas, Nicos. 2014 [1978]. <\/span>State, Power, Socialism<\/span><\/i>. London: Verso.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Saull, Richard. 2018. \u00abRacism and Far Right Imaginaries Within Neo-Liberal Political Economy\u00bb. <\/span>New Political Economy<\/span><\/i> 23 (5): 588\u2013608. <\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/13563467.2017.1417370<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wacquant, Lo\u00efc. 2009 [2004]. <\/span>Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity<\/span><\/i>. Duke University Press.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

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Cite this entry as:<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Roque<\/span><\/span>, Jaime<\/span>. 2025. \u2019Authoritarian Populism<\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span> In <\/span><\/span>Populism<\/span>s<\/span> and Em<\/span>otion<\/span>s<\/span><\/span> Glossary<\/span><\/span><\/em>, edited by Cristiano Gianolla, Lisete M\u00f3nico, Maira Magalh\u00e3es Lopes and Maria Elena Indelicato<\/span>. <\/span><\/span>Available<\/span> at<\/span> https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/<\/span>en<\/span>\/<\/span>gloss\u00e1rio<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jaime Roque<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[52],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAUTHORITARIAN POPULISM - UNPOP - UNpacking POPulism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Authoritarian populism (AP) is a sociopolitical transformation of the capitalist state based on weakening democratic institutions through popular consent. 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