Far-right intellectual discourse about populism: A German case study and some future avenues for research

While the far right successfully practises populism, presenting itself as the voice of ‘the people’, much less is known about its own explicit engagement with the populist label and strategy. In our paper, we ask how the far right responds to and interacts with broader debates about populism, whether it understands populism in a manner similar to its political opponents and what role these reflections about populism play in far-right strategy. We probe these questions through an analysis of the German Institute for State Policy, a key actor within the ‘metapolitical’ New Right in Germany. We find a sympathetic attitude towards populism, a rejection of mainstream anti-populism and a readiness to learn from left-wing theories of populism (something akin to a 'Laclau and Mouffianism of the right’ following an older tradition of right-wing Gramscianism). Not just a means to provoke, or re-signify an otherwise pejorative term, these discussions about populism are serious, in-depth and tap into current theoretical debates.

Building on this exploratory case study, we then draw broader lessons and suggest avenues for further research. Much work remains to be done across time and space, with French and US far-right reflections on populism (and their international take-up) the most obvious areas of potential research. Such analysis, we argue, should further probe how reflections on populism link far-right intellectuals to far-right activists and parties, as well as how the far right draws on existing discourses about populism, including liberal anti-populist discourses and left-wing populist proposals, to legitimise its own politics. Finally, future work needs to critically evaluate the goals and character of far-right populist strategizing (Does the far right genuinely aim to empower ‘the people’ or is it just attempting to replace the current ‘fake’ elite with a ‘real’ right-wing alternative?) and pay attention to how far-right reflections on populism intersect with explicitly elitist versions of nationalism and conservativism.