Prof Chetan Bhatt

This course is available on the MSc in Human Rights, MSc in Human Rights and Politics, MSc in Political Sociology and MSc in Sociology. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

This course has a limited number of places. For information on how to apply for a place on this course, please see Courses offered and related information.

In this course, we examine the global rise over the last decade of authoritarian populist, neo-fascist, neo-Nazi and ethno-supremacist movements, leaders and states, and we consider the threats they pose for international human rights and democracy.  The course is international in scope and subject matter. Its approach is interdisciplinary, and we will be drawing on political, sociological and philosophical disciplines during the course.  We will cover key developments in Eastern and Western Europe, North and South America, South and East Asia and other regions.  We will look at older and contemporary academic debates about the nature of authoritarian democracy, populism and fascism.  The course aims to move beyond the conceptual limitations of many recent academic debates, and you will have an opportunity to apply new and developing conceptual frameworks to understand particular far-right phenomenon. In addition to country and regional case studies, we will cover a range of themes, including: the nature of authoritarian populism in the United States, the West and the Global South; the international organization of neo-Nazism and neo-Fascism (including the ‘alt right’, the ‘alt lite’, QAnon, the European New Right and the counterjihad movement); authoritarian populist governance in the United States, Europe, Brazil, India, Argentina, the Philippines and other regions; new media and the transformation of political communication; knowledge and truth in authoritarian populist discourse; the assaults on minorities; and the consequences for political liberalism, democracy and international human rights.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

This course is usually delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars. There will be two hours or more of teaching each week in AT.

Essay plan (1000 words).

Students will be expected to complete one 1,000 word essay plan chosen from a set list of questions, to be handed in during the middle of the term in which the course is taught.  Feedback on formative work will be provided in individual face to face meetings in written and verbal form; general formative feedback will also be provided during seminars.

• Werner-Muller, J. (2017), What is Populism?, Penguin.
• Mudde, C. ed. (2016), The Populist Radical Right, Routledge.
• Heydarian, Richard (2017), The Rise of Duterte: A Populist Revolt against Elite Democracy, Palgrave.
• Kendzior, Sarah (2020), Hiding in Plain Sight: the invention of Donald Trump and the erosion of America, Flatiron.
• Gudavarthy, Ajay (2018), India After Modi: Populism and the Right, Bloomsbury.
• Smith, Terry (2020), Whitelash: unmasking white grievance at the ballot box, Cambridge University Press.
• Foley, Conor (2019), In Spite of You: Bolsonaro and the New Brazilian Resistance, OR Books.
• Snyder, Timothy (2017), On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Bodley Head.
• Berezin, Mabel (2009), Illiberal Politics in Neoliberal Times: culture, security and populism in the new Europe, Cambridge University Press.
• Chatterjee, Partha (2019), I Am the People: Reflections on Popular Sovereignty Today, Columbia University Press.

Essay (100%, 4000 words) in January.

The course is assessed by a 4,000 word essay chosen from a list of essay titles. 

Attendance at all seminars and submission of all set coursework is required.