S2E10: Can the con­cept of “fas­cism” be used to under­stand the patholo­gies of US pol­i­tics, past and present?

The cur­rent rise of right wing pop­ulist lead­ers in democ­ra­cies around the world, from Don­ald Trump to Jair Bol­sonaro in Brazil, has led to a debate on the fuzzi­ness of these new regimes that are erod­ing lib­er­al­ism by incor­po­rat­ing total­i­tar­i­an fea­tures. Some argue that the term ‘fas­cist’ would be use­ful in under­stand­ing the nature of pol­i­tics in these coun­tries, while oth­ers warn against an infla­tion­ary use of the term. We close the sec­ond sea­son of the pod­cast by ask­ing Pro­fes­sor Jason Stan­ley (Yale Uni­ver­si­ty) whether the term ‘fas­cism’ helps us under­stand what is hap­pen­ing in the US and how this ide­ol­o­gy is seep­ing into democ­ra­cies the world over.