Far-right intellectual discourse about populism: the case of the German Institut für Staatspolitik

Abstract

Despite the ubiquity of work on the populism of the far right, explicit analysis of far-right populist strategizing and discourse about populism has been rare. This article explores such far-right reflections on populism through the publications of the German Institut für Staatspolitik, an organization at the heart of the intellectual Neue Rechte and close to parts of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). We find a sympathetic attitude towards populism, a rejection of mainstream anti-populism and a readiness to learn from left-wing theories of populism. Whilst partially overlapping with left populist critique of technocratic neoliberalism, Neue Rechte reflections about populism are decidedly embedded within an ecosystem of far-right nationalist and anti-liberal discourse. With nationalism seen as a precondition of successful populist strategy, the far right’s innate awareness of the ‘true’ national nature of ‘the people’ is seen as giving it a winning advantage over supposedly naïve left populists unable to grasp this ‘fact’.