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This paper explores the role anger plays in charismatic movements. Although scholars have long recognized the importance of emotions to the etiology of charisma, they tend to focus on mutual affection among leaders and followers, paying less attention to how anger—and particularly its subspecies, ressentiment —patterns charismatic power. Drawing on literature from political science, populism research, and the cultural sociology of charisma, we argue that ressentiment, which is associated with self-disvalue and an invidious need to blame outsiders, is key to theorizing the emotional energy that charisma delivers to revolutionary upheaval. The Weberian source for the intervention is his lesser known concept of 'berserk-charisma'. Reorienting the focus of charisma research to account for its aggressive, 'outward' dimension has the benefit of drawing us closer to the vision Weber had for its social-historical relevance. We demonstrate our insights using the case of charismatic/populist support for Trump. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of partisanship, rightwing media, and social media on attitudes about contemporary conspiracy theories. Mainstream scholarly views that 'both sides' of the political aisle indulge routinely in such theories are challenged. I adopt a Gramscian hegemonic framework that examines rising rightwing conspiracy theories as a manifestation of mass false consciousness in service of a political-economic system that serves upper-class interests. Issues examined include the QAnon movement, 'big lie' voter fraud conspiracism, and Covid-19 conspiracy theories, and the way they related to partisanship, rightwing media, and social media. I provide evidence that Republican partisanship, rightwing media consumption, and social media consumption are all significant statistical predictors of acceptance of modern conspiracy theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses Trump's failed self-coup, its authoritarian backwash, and threats to democracy. It analyzes his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which contributed to his 2020 election loss and deepened the political polarization that led to the January 6 Capitol insurrection. The essay also discusses how the forty-year acceleration of economic inequality and sociopolitical de-democratization generated a legitimacy crisis of the hegemonic, neoliberal regime that opened way for Trumpist ethnoracial nationalism. The Trump presidency and pandemic increased the intensity of the political-economic contradictions and transparency of the attenuated relationship of democracy and capitalism. In the consequent "interregnum," fundamental threats to democratic electoral institutions persist, yet a clear, realistic vision of an alternative democratic regime and the political bloc to bring it into being have yet to be forged. The fate of American democracy rides on overcoming the remarkable denial and normalization of the Trump coup attempt and on forging new safeguards for electoral institutions. Preventing a recurrence, however, requires a progressive transformation of Trumpism's de-democratized seedbed – neoliberal capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gramscian scholars have engaged with Gramsci's leitmotif ('rhythm of thought') and the stato integrale (integral state), a concept he introduced in Autumn 1930. This represents remarkable progress in the Marxist community. But what requires further attention is the interconnection between an integral state and a totalitarian one, two of the three expressions of state-society formations that Perry Anderson identified as Gramsci's antinomies. This article argues that the integral state is fragile but hegemonic if it can be sustained. Otherwise, it can degenerate into a totalitarian state. The article refigures the 'integral state' as the 'integral state-society'. It exists relatively, depending on whether the 'integral momentum' or the 'totalitarian tendency' prevails in a dynamic interaction between radical Left, Far Right, and those currents in between. Identifying this relativity helps to formulate a deeper understanding of Gramsci's thought and show how his legacy supports a class struggle perspective on the COVID-19 interregnum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the earliest days of the British North American colonies, violence permeates American society. At the political-economic level, violence established and expanded the nation through slavery and military conquest. At the inter-personal level, people chose violence to resolve disputes, and for entertainment. The one consistent element has been the 'masterless men', white males who feel that whiteness and divinely endowed liberty entitle them to more than they currently have in property, employment, or status. Endowed with the right of self-determination and cultural reinforcement for feelings of inherent superiority, they have embraced fantastical conspiracies and restorative violence as personal gratification and cultural terror management whenever they feel that perceived social inferiors are succeeding beyond their appropriate social position, especially through military service, economic entrepreneurship, and election victory. Conspiracy and violent fantasy promise to restore racial-masculine hierarchy from an allegedly ideal past to fulfill God's divine purpose for the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we analyze the role of conspiracy theories, especially the spread of QAnon during the COVID-19 pandemics, in the legitimation crisis and epistemic crisis in contemporary democracies. We discuss Habermas' theory of legitimation crisis and the potential for reactionary movements in times of such crisis, as well as Hofstadter's description of the paranoid style in political culture. We explain the notion of 'epistemic crisis' as theorized by Larry Laudan and discussed recently in relation to social media. We discuss anti-intellectualism in Hofstadter's terms, and explain its connection with populism. Finally, we explain how all of this comes to bear on the contemporary proliferation of conspiracy theory, using QAnon and the COVID crisis as our point of reference, and examples from the United States and Brazil to illustrate our points. QAnon fueled COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and COVID-19 conspiracy theories rocketed QAnon to a place of major influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conspiracy theories are not new to religion, nor an exclusively modern phenomenon. But they take on more destructive and wide-ranging impact with modern communication technologies. Looking at the root psychosocial mechanisms of conspiracy theories, we argue that they frame ideas, history, and culture through the cognitive mindscape of special, 'hidden knowledge'. They also serve as a unifying theory of conflict and narration of history. The COVID epidemic has strained the economic and political system. Although it may be a matter of perception for Q-followers, a sense of precarity is enhanced by QAnon, thus unleashing and mustering an awakening for such extremist paranoid discourse of ressentiment. This parallels the cognitive mindscape of 'the Great Replacement'. Prior to election 2020, QAnon's base had been growing in Evangelical communities. Its presence continues to be felt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At this moment in time, the very future of democracy in America has become a serious question. Many journalists and commentators have raised questions of crisis of White, Christian, male authority that impel an 'illiberal democracy', one-party rule, and/or a new civil War. The wave of progressive movements in the 1960s, resurgent in the 21st century, and challenging traditional, essentialist, identities and values were experienced by many as threats and dangers, fostering fears, anxieties, and grievances that elicited backlashes engendering various reactionary movements that are now a powerful force. These 'authoritarian populisms', racialized nationalisms, gendered ethnoreligious nationalisms, neo-fascisms, and indeed some clearly fascist movements extolling racial, gender, or Christian supremacy are mobilizing to preserve the culture and country of the 'real people' who feel victimized, challenged, and face demise. A basic fault of modern political economies has been the fundamental conflict between political democracy, majority rule, and/or rules of law and the economic anarchy, which privileges a few while many face duress; these conditions lead to the irrationality and scapegoating, especially racism, sexism, and ethnocentrism flourish to foster a variety of authoritarian, reactionary mobilizations across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the Global Right usually trace its intellectual underpinnings to the revolutionary conservative New Right and its ideas claiming to defend an 'ethno-pluralist' European identity from the multiculturalist threat of a 'Great Replacement' through immigration. A second lineage, which we refer to as 'national-conservative', is less explored and is more concerned with threats to moral order and the loss of moral bearing due to liberalism's relativism. These two intellectual lineages, and corresponding political alignments, engender different political projects of the Global Right, which is not that coherent as it seems. Taking a long-term historical-ideational perspective that underlines the power of ideologies as templates, we argue that a closer look at the different intellectual traditions of the Global Right can help explain the contrasting political preferences for socio-economic action, institution-building and transnational cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examine the social phenomenon known as 'QAnon'. While QAnon is typically thought of as an exclusively online cultural phenomenon, and thus easily dismissed, it has played a significant role in promoting physical acts of violence—including multiple murders and the attack on the United States Capital on 6 January 2021. Utilizing a qualitative analysis of 300 hours of QAnon-related content, we argue that the widespread beliefs held by QAnon supporters were only possible due to the confluence of feelings of distrust in government and other public officials, purveyors of QAnon that profited in the movement's success, and a populist digital media environment in which extremist ideas are housed and promoted. We conclude by asking if this is a phenomenon created by greater connectivity, or if this is a byproduct of late-stage capitalism in which social relations continue to be atomized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on neoliberalism tends to conceive of it as fundamentally about 'free markets'. But this confuses theoretical with actually existing neoliberalism. This article presents a meta-narrative of neoliberalism since the 1970s that conceptualises it as a political economic project seeking to enhance corporate and elite power through market, non-market and anti-market policies (vectors of power). These policies have been propelled globally by two forces and implemented via four mechanisms. The two forces are ideological and police/military power and have convinced or coerced policy-makers and ordinary people into accepting neoliberal change. The four mechanisms have emerged successively over time and all operate in parallel today: policy experiments arose in the 1970s, policy transfers in the 1980s, rule regimes in the 1990s and self-regulation in the 2000s. Our conceptualisation offers a methodological framework to empirically investigate concrete aspects of neoliberalism in various places and time periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been suggested that, today, with the growth of Right-populism and white nationalism, Western nations are haunted by the spectre of fascism. This article explores the consolidation of a 'post-fascist constellation', through attention to utopia. The argument proceeds by way of a discussion of utopia as method, beginning with a survey of the utopian turn across the human sciences, and closing with seven theses on utopia as human scientific optic. Turning to post-fascism, a five-featured ideal-type is outlined: organic, palingenetic, transcendent nationalism; conspiracy theory and cleansing; charismatic authority; counter-revolution or backlash politics; and militaristic masculinity. These strands are then brought together, in exploring the utopian dimension of post-fascism, drawing on the work of Ernst Bloch, in particular. The article closes with two suggested and somewhat contrasting theses: first, that post-fascism is loaded with utopian content, predominantly characterized by what Bloch called 'the future in the past'; second, that, nevertheless, the utopian figuration of post-fascism is residual in comparison to the reservoir of variably-expressed fears found within this ideological ensemble. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars associated the recent transformation of Turkish democracy with the rise of a new bourgeois class and the neoliberal restructuring of the world economy. Using a social property relations approach, I provide a critique of the readings of Turkish modernity based on the fall and the rise of bourgeois agency. Revealing the non-capitalist origins and the protracted capitalist transformation of Ottoman and Turkish modernization, I conclude that the reformulation of the main pillars of Turkish modernity today is an expression of the recent consolidation of capitalist property relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses a participatory planning process that opened democratic possibilities in Columbia, MO and argues that similar processes can and should be utilized to encourage broader participation in the public sphere. While grassroots participation is ideal, communities can use the language of dialogue and deliberation to turn instrumental processes toward more democratic outcomes. In the concluding remarks the author discusses both implications for research and the methods of political process organization that can help to create just and equal spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reports on the renewal of the critical questioning of capitalism as a system. Since the late 1940s, contemporary social movements were more determined to target capitalism explicitly than has been the norm for social movements. The waning of anti-communism as national paranoia and the end of the Cold War are some of the factors enabling criticisms of capitalism in the U.S.

This article addresses the political aspects of the structural marginalization of Adivasis (Scheduled Tribes) in India. Relating to critical debates about the changing nature of state–society relations in India, the article assesses the argument that the best way for social movements in India to advance their oppositional projects is to harness the state to their attempts to deepen democracy and advance subaltern emancipation. The trajectories of two Adivasi movements in western Madhya Pradesh are analysed, and I discuss the conceptual and political lessons that can be learnt from these case studies in terms of the relationship between subaltern politics and state power in contemporary India. Theoretically grounded in Marxian state theory, the article puts forward the argument that it is necessary to move beyond both anti-statism and state-centrism in order to develop a politically enabling engagement with contemporary Adivasi mobilization in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]