Week 4 Reading Outline (Crossley/Pleming)

1. A major throughline across all five pieces is the concept of “Authoritarian Populism”

a. Defined by Hall as: “an exceptional form of the capitalist state – which, unlike classical fascism, has retained most (though not all) of the formal representative institutions in place, and which at the same time has been able to construct around itself an active popular consent.” (174) 

2. The New Conservativism and the Old (1957)

a. engages the unfolding of “new conservativism” while tethering it to two contradictions: the welfare state and economic policy

b. The welfare state offers protection and redress within a hierarchical state through social security and income redistribution. It promises a more egalitarian society whilst doing little, if anything, to redefine socio-structural limits.

c. the middle class wants access to resources without realigning the hierarchical social structure

d. undermines social morals through the demonization of welfare state policies.

e. In turn, the welfare state cannot support itself vis a vis healthcare, housing, etc.

3. The Great Moving Right Show (1979)

a. Assesses the continuing move to the right in British politics (Thatcherism), this time in 1979.

b. The New Right moves front and center partly because of the short-sightedness and a pervasive “sharpening” of contradictions in the political sphere.

c. Left over-compromises by settling disagreements that invariably promote the capitalist economy over the working-class.

d. Revolutionary optimism vs revolutionary pessimism – a docile class struggle over direct action

4. Empire Strikes Back (1982)

a. Thatcher successfully fabricated an authoritarian populism by leveraging, among other things, citizens’ nostalgia for the glory days of the English empire. This is exemplified by the Falklands War and seems easily applied to the current US political landscape.

5. Moving Nowhere Show (1998)

a. A damning critique of the Labour Party’s direction under Tony Blair. Labour’s “Third Way” failed to challenge the status quo of Thatcherism. Thatcher represented the creation of a new historical bloc and the New Labour Party only adjusted to this new reality and failed to challenge it.

6. Political Commitment (1966)

a. Hall critiques a rigid psephology that objectifies voters. Rather than independent actors, voters become blocs to be captured. This approach inspires an inherently conservative approach to politics.

7. All the pieces this week combine to make a larger point. Namely, the English right under Thatcher was extremely adept at using “authoritarian populism” to seize on moments of crisis and create new political/ideological norms. The left has been terrible at meeting these moments, ceding ground to Thatcherism due to an inability to create new ideas.

8. Vocab

a. Authoritarian populism: an “arousal of populist sentiment...subsumed or transformed into the identification with authority. (Hall, “Empire Strikes Back, 204).”

b. Psephology: "The scientific study of elections." (Merriam-Webster).

c. Ideology: ”Mental frameworks...to make sense of, figure out and render intelligible the way society works.” (Keywords for Radicals, 213).

9. Multi-Media Example

a.https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/06/us/politics/presidential-election-2024-red- shift.html.