Paper title:
 A Short Historical Sociology of the Radical Right
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4316/CC.2024.01.11
Published in:
Issue 1 (Vol. 30) / 2024
Publishing date:
2024-07-31
Pages:
229 - 238
Author(s):
Vlad Gafița
Abstract:
 Richard Saull’s work on the far right makes a fundamental contribution to our knowledge of the post-fascist phenomenon in today’s world. Although the book presents itself as a historical sociology of the far-right’s connections with neoliberal ideology and politics in the United States, United Kingdom, and Western Europe, it goes beyond these methodological boundaries, indicating the emergence of a new concept, far-right neoliberalism. Despite the author’s small shift toward a left-wing perspective, R. Saull demonstrates post-fascism’s ability to survive with the Western neoliberal elite and adapt to new political, social, economic, and ideological goals. Furthermore, the extreme right has recast itself as an anti-system force and movement, continuously identifying new actual, imagined, or fabricated adversaries. Post-fascism retains its “traditional” populist and militant elements while remaining within the confines of legality for the time being, not proposing or failing to restructure the societies in which it exists in a totalitarian sense.
Keywords:
 anti-system movement, Establishment, far-right neoliberalism, far right, historical sociology, militant features, neoliberalism, populist features, post-fascism, totalitarian.




References:
1. Anievas Alexander, Davidson Neil, Fabry Adam, Saull Richard (Eds.), The Longue Durée of the Far-Right: An International Historical Sociology, London, Routledge, 2015.
2. Anievas Alexander, Saull Richard, Reassessing the Cold War and the Far-Right: Fascist Legacies and the Making of the Liberal International Order after 1945, “International Studies Review”, 22/3 (2020), pp. 370-395.
3. Anievas Alexander, Saull Richard, The Far-Right in World Politics/World Politics in the Far-Right, “Globalizations”, 20/5, 2023, pp. 715-730.
4. Anievas Alexander, Saull Richard (Eds.), The Far-Right in World Politics, London, Routledge, 2024.
5. Colas Alejandro, Saull Richard (Eds,), The War on Terrorism and the American Empire After the Cold War, London, Routledge, 2005.
6. Davidson Neil, Saull Richard, Neo-Liberalism and the Far-Right: A Contradictory Embrace, “Critical Sociology”, 43/4-5, 2017, pp. 707-724.
7. Kiely Ray, Saull Richard, Neoliberalism and the Far-Right: An Introduction, “Critical Sociology”, 43/4-5, 2017.
8. Onfray Michel, La Pensée postnazie. Contre-histoire de la philosophie, X, Paris, Éditions Grasset et Fasquelle, 2018.
9. Saull Richard, Rethinking Theory and History in the Cold War: The State, Military Power and Social Revolution, London, Frank Cass, 2001.
10. Saull Richard, The Cold War & After, London, Pluto Press, 2007.
11. Saull Richard, Capitalism, Crisis and the Far-Right in the Neoliberal Era, “Journal of International Relations and Development”, 18/1, 2015, pp. 25-51.
12. Saull Richard, Capitalist Development and the Rise and 'Fall' of the Far-Right, “Critical Sociology”, 41/4-5, 2015, pp. 619-39.
13. Saull Richard, Racism and Far-Right Imaginaries within Neoliberal Political Economy, “New Political Economy”, 23/5, 2018, pp. 588-608.
14. Saull Richard, Capital, Race and Space. Vol. I, The Far-Right from Bonapartism to Fascism, Leiden, Brill, 2023.
15. Saull Richard, Capital, Race and Space, Vol. II, The Far-Right from ‘Post- Fascism’ to Trumpism, Leiden-Boston, Brill, 2024.
16. Traverso Enzo, New Faces of Fascism Populism and the Far Right, London, Verso, 2019.