I will follow? Authoritarian populism, past and present

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scoones et al. [2018. “Emancipatory Rural Politics: Confronting Authoritarian Populism.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 45 (1): 1–20] suggests that the contemporary rural world can be characterized as having distinct forms of authoritarian populism. This article argues that key aspects of authoritarian populism are not seen across the breadth and depth of the contemporary rural world, and, as such, the use of authoritarian populism can be politically misleading. Nonetheless, it is argued, the way in which authoritarian populism in the 1980s fostered particular and specific forms of political responses are of use in developing contemporary intersectional counter-hegemonic strategies capable of challenging the regressive political character of the contemporary conjuncture.