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The Rise of Neo-Fascism

Friday, March 31, 2023

12:00 pm - 4:30 pm

This symposium will assess the dangerous upsurge of neo-fascism over recent years. We will examine not only the increasing expression of hostile and outlandish far-right ideologies, including many that are explicitly fascist, but also organized (and frequently armed) political movements, organizations, and militias.

These political formations commonly combine extreme nationalism, racism, anti-immigrant hostility, an authoritarian contempt for liberal democracy and the rule of law, and an avowed commitment to political violence. Foremost, our task requires an analysis of the socio-political characteristics of fascism as both a historical and contemporary phenomenon.

We are primarily concerned with the core ideological values mobilized to solicit public support and legitimate its institutional consolidation through liberal democratic political and juridical processes, including elections. This goal also demands the examination and critique of historical fascism’s socio-economic premises, including its origins in the social conditions of cataclysmic capitalist economic crisis and its profound affinities with colonialism and militarism.

Further, our challenge is to comprehend fascism through a framework of analysis and critique that is not reducible to or trapped by its historical antecedents. Indeed, we may find it productive and illuminating to identify historical antecedents not ordinarily recognized as fascism. Finally, we aim to identify the distinctive features of fascism, as both ideology and practice, and explore what precisely is new about “neo”-fascism in order to better understand how it operates in contemporary society on a global scale.

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