Thread by @docrussjackson

#ESSENTIAL article by Sang Hun Lim: drawing on Karl Polanyi’s writing on fascism during the inter-war period.

It help us better understand & diagnose contemporary radical right-wing populism AND recommends how we might prevent the collapse of democracy.

globaldialogue.isa-sociology.org/articles/why-l…

Radical right-wing politics is widely regarded as a populist movement for social protection against economic globalisation. Critics often suggest reforming left-wing parties to reorient populist movements from the right to the left by building a broad non-capitalist coalition.

However, through a close reading of Karl Polanyi’s works, Sang Hun Lim's article offers an alternative diagnosis & prescription for preventing radical right-wing empowerment.

Polanyi notes that fascists gained political power through support from capitalist elites.

Political democratisation threatened the separation of the market from politics, & WWI & the great depression resulted in the dysfunction of the market economy. In this situation, capitalist elites chose #fascism – a radical measure to protect capitalism by destroying democracy.

Interpreting right-wing politics as a “populist” social protection movement makes us “look down,” dumping responsibility for such politics on the victims of neoliberal globalization.

Polanyi’s diagnosis of fascism pushes us to “look up” to capitalist elites, without whose provision of resources and information, radical right-wing politicians could hardly grab political power.

Polanyi reminds us that, for all their populist rhetoric, radical right-wing politicians have always been supportive of the capitalistic market economy.

If we accept Polanyi’s diagnosis of the political empowerment of fascism as the attempt of elites to protect the self-regulating market, we should consider how to divide capitalist elites as much as how to promote unity among the lower classes.