Right-wing illiberalism in Southern Europe

LusoGlobe Research in Charge

Researcher-in-charge: Riccardo Marchi

End

Abstract

Right-wing illiberalism is on the rise in the Iberian Peninsula in the last decade of the 21st century, following the generalized trend in the West. The scientific debate about the nature of this phenomenon and its impact on liberal democracies divides academics over the equivalence of right-wing illiberalism with the anti-democratic tradition of the 18th-century Counterrevolution or the right-wing authoritarianisms of the first half of the 20th century. This epistemological divergence is even more evident in countries where the Counterrevolution (France) and right-wing authoritarian regimes (Italy: fascism; Spain: Francoism; Portugal: Salazarism) were born. As a result, in the Iberian Peninsula, several research projects on the origins of right-wing illiberalism look only at the political history of the traditional radical right and, from there, try to understand the reasons why it passes from the margins of democracy – always limited to lunatic fringes – to the recent electoral, cultural, mobilisational success. Alongside this literature, there are authors who, on the contrary, suggest shifting the analysis from nostalgic right-wing radicalism to the mainstream liberal-conservative milieu. The latter has gathered, in democracy, the most consistent part of conservatives as voters of moderate governmental parties, activists of social movements, producers or consumers of cultural products. The internal changes to mainstream liberal-conservatism determined by the impact of the cleavages of the last two decades can more efficiently explain the reconfiguration of illiberal tendencies until now latent, their autonomy and the success of their offer vis-à-vis the existing socio-political demand, not reducible to the far right. Through a historical and qualitative methodology, the investigation analyses, in comparative perspective the illiberal tendencies internal to mainstream liberal-conservatism in Portugal and Spain, in the context of Southern Europe. The research question is whether current illiberalism is a break away by a component always latent in liberal-conservatism or a development of part of it or a hybrid of the two previous components. The aim is, on the one hand, to describe the evolutions of right-wing illiberalism throughout the democratic period, its interaction with liberal-conservatism and the struggle for the hegemony and, on the other hand, to explain the reasons for its recent success that cannot be just ascribed to the traditional far right still marginal. The research is relevant for two reasons: it provides a long-term historical perspective on a current rising phenomenon; it deepens the knowledge about a political object – conservatism and its dispute between liberal and illiberal components – still barely explored in Portugal, thanks to the comparison with the concomitant phenomenon in Spain. The innovation lies in the application to the right-wing Iberian illiberalism of an analytical lens other than the classic literature on far right and populism.

Outputs

One book on Portugal addressing the dispute within the mainstream right-wings between liberalism and illiberalism for the political and cultural hegemony. One book on the comparative dimension addressing the illiberalism in the Iberian democracies within liberal conservatism.

Three scientific articles in English in high impact international journals focused on the three historical periods (transition, consolidated democracy, current illiberal challenge to liberal democracy). One of them will be dedicated to the comparative diachronic dimension.

One scientific article per year published in national journals (in Portugal and Spain) on each national case or on specific aspects relevant to each case. As regard the fundraising: a research project on right-wing illiberalism in Southern Europe will be submitted for the national calls by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). It has been already submitted to FCT CEEC 5th Edition in 2022, placed second, but not financed.

Networking: the project is part of my contribution to the transnational research network Direita, História e Memória (DHM). The aim is to promote a research network on illiberalism in Southern Europe, focusing on mainstream rights and complementary to the multiple networks on extreme-right and populism.