<p>'Ranging widely across the different intellectual contexts in which questions of populism and demagoguery have been debated since mid-century, Jones puts the critical theorists’ work into fruitful conversation with fascinating interlocutors from David Riesman to Raymond Williams, from Gramsci to Laclau. He carefully elaborates his concepts and then tracks their nuances across political science, media and cultural studies, into the very fabric of the culture industry. This tour de force reveals untapped riches of critical theory for understanding not just an earlier historical moment but indeed the present resurgence of right-wing populism as well.'<br />Johannes von Moltke, Professor of German and Film, Media and Television, University of Michigan<br /><br />'As a piece of intellectual history reconstructing the development of critical theory’s engagement with the study of demagogic populism, this is superb. Its deep understanding of the history closely informs and enables its critical work on the varieties of theoretical responses to populism.'<br />David Owen, Professor of Social and Political Philosophy, University of Southampton<br /><br />'The electoral success of Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy proves that activists with neo-fascist roots can come in from the margins to displace ‘mainstream’ politicians. The current moment in the (dis) United Kingdom’s ongoing ‘great moving right show’ illustrates that long established parties can be reshaped around ever-more regressive policies. [Jones] direct(s) us to what are therefore urgent problems: what explains the attractions of authoritarian reaction? How do we act through our politics, social movements and cultural interventions to effectively counter the right and advance a progressive agenda? Jones [and Morelock] provide rich evidence that the concerns and arguments which Horkheimer, Adorno, Löwenthal and their colleagues developed seventy years ago and more can offer starting points to meet key challenges of our time.'<br />Mike Makin-Waite, <i>Radical Philosophy</i> 213, October 2022</p>

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Populism is a powerful force today, but its full scope has eluded the analytical tools of both orthodox and heterodox ‘populism studies’. This book provides a valuable alternative perspective. It reconstructs in detail for the first time the sociological analyses of US demagogues by members of the Frankfurt School and compares these with contemporary approaches. Modern demagogy emerges as a key under-researched feature of populism, since populist movements, whether 'left' or 'right', are highly susceptible to 'demagogic capture'. The book also details the culture industry’s populist contradictions – including its role as an incubator of modern demagogues – from the 1930s through to today’s social media and ‘Trumpian psychotechnics’. Featuring a previously unpublished text by Adorno on modern demagogy as an appendix, it will be of interest to everyone concerned about the rise of demagogic populism today.
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This is the first study to make a detail case for the Frankfurt School’s relevance to understanding contemporary populism. It reconstructs their analysis of ‘modern demagogy’ and demonstrates its advantages over orthodox ‘populism studies’ and the work of Laclau. The book also extends the Institute’s analysis to assess ‘counter-demagogic’ forces.
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Part I: Critically theorising demagogic populism1 Introduction: from orthodox ‘populism studies’ to critical theory 2 The Institute’s analysis of ‘modern demagogy’ 3 Expanding the reach of the Institute’s analysis4 Gramscian analyses of fascism and populism: Poulantzas, Laclau, Hall 5 Towards a synthesis of critical perspectives Part II: Populist contradictions of the culture industry6 Cultural populisms and culture industry 7 Counter-demagogic popular art: towards a selective traditionExcursus: an outline of Trumpian psychotechnics8 Structural transformations of demagogic populism Appendix: Theodore Adorno, Introduction to Prophets of DeceitIndex
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Populism is one of the most significant phenomena in twenty-first-century politics, but what it is and how it functions remains a source of dispute. Side-stepping the usual debates over definition, Critical theory and demagogic populism makes a unique contribution by revisiting the Frankfurt School’s ground-breaking work on demagogy.The book reconstructs the Institute for Social Research’s ‘Studies in Prejudice’ project of the 1940s, providing an analysis of demagogy in the United States that engages with Weber’s work on charismatic leadership, the US liberal critique of demagogy and the theories of Freud, notably his group psychology. The result is what Adorno calls ‘a kind of psychotechnics’, where the rally acts as a site of performative cultural production of demagogic speech. Extending this analysis into the present, the book identifies modern demagogy as a key feature of contemporary populism. Populist movements, whether ‘left’ or ‘right’, are susceptible to ‘demagogic capture’, and the likelihood of capture has only increased with the rise of the culture industry, since demagogues, from Father Coughlin in the 1920s to Trump today, have always been ‘early adopters’.Providing a critique of orthodox populism studies and its critics, notably Laclau, Critical theory and demagogic populism brings the wider Gramscian tradition into productive dialogue with the work of the Institute for Social Research. It concludes by extending the Institute’s analysis to assess ‘counter-demagogic’ forces.
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781526163738
Publisert
2022-04-12
Utgiver
Vendor
Manchester University Press
Vekt
417 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Dybde
16 mm
Aldersnivå
U, P, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet

Forfatter

Biographical note

Paul K. Jones is Reader in Sociology in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University