The belief that liberalism is conducive to democracy has acquired the status of common sense – a view the International Karl Polanyi Society (IKPS) seeks to challenge. Both intellectual history and contemporary developments point to a more ambivalent relationship. Prominent liberal thinkers such as John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Hayek expressed significant reservations about decisions made by societal majorities. Today, the tensions between economic liberalism and democracy have become increasingly visible: neoliberal policies emphasizing austerity, privatization, and marketization have undermined the capacities of democracies to address urgent societal challenges, such as widening social inequalities and accelerating climate breakdown.

Beyond economic liberalism, the political liberal tradition likewise requires critical scrutiny. While it has widened access to decision making and championed the protection of fundamental rights, political liberalism has been marked by exclusions – both with regard to who is admitted as a member and to which issues are subject to democratic control in the first place. Today, liberal democratic institutions are under attack from far-right and fascist movements. Their defense, however, is unlikely to succeed if the shortcomings of liberal democracy remain unaddressed.  

The Fascism & Liberalism Blog aims to provide comprehensive investigations into the relationship between fascism and liberalism – both historically and in the present. Central questions include: In what ways do the intellectual foundations of (neo)liberalism and fascism converge? How is the rise of the far right connected to decades of neoliberal governance? To what extent can fascism be conceptualized as a latent tendency within liberal democratic societies? And how can we build a profoundly democratic, anti-fascist alternative?

We publish every two weeks, always on Thursdays. The authors have been invited by the editors. Their contributions are read and commented on, but all opinions are those of the authors themselves and do not reflect the position of the IKPS.

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