The Far-Right As Focal Point of the Reemerging Capitalism-Democracy Tension in a Multipolar World

The end of the Cold War that culminated in the collapse of the Soviet Union seemed to have proven one thing in particular: that the twin system of liberal democracy and capitalism was functionally and morally superior, ensuring both political freedom and elevated standards of living. Yet this supposed truth, albeit never unquestioned, today seems almost preposterous. That “the end of history” would not usher in a global expansion of Western modernity seemed to become evident first through 9/11 and the subsequent “War on Terror”. A “free world” led by a Western alliance seemed impossibly far away. With the 2008 financial crisis and the economic changes that predated and followed it, also the internal tensions of the “superior” system became clear. The second and third decade of the 2000s further complicate the picture, as former mass parties struggle for political relevance, mechanisms of democratic representation seem fraught and strong(wo)men, ethno-nationalists, and religiously guided market-libertarians have marched unto the political stage. The backdrop against which these transformations are taking place is the diminished economic and political importance of parts of the Global North, especially Europe, and the reemergence of a multicentric, at times fractured world order.

The tectonic shifts in global power structures bring to light both the contradictions within the former “core” and the challenges to it from the newly emerging centers, creating mutually reenforcing instabilities. The far-right, which despite its degree of internal homogeneity is an umbrella term for diverse viewpoints and actors, has come out as one of the main beneficiaries of this process, as it quickly positioned itself as an expert entrepreneur of instability. This contribution seeks to explore these various, interrelated processes by contextualizing the ongoing far-right breakthrough in the light of an intensifying capitalism-democracy tension set against the global process of de- and multi-centralization.