Nazism, neoliberalism, and the Trumpist challenge to democracy

Abstract

Trumpism demands that scholars rethink the categories commonly used to critique authoritarian and pro-market regimes. We seek here to contribute to this rethinking with a series of reflections on how the terms “Nazi” and “neoliberal” cannot be used without careful consideration of the ways in which they complicate one another. In particular, we suggest that scholars must be careful about comparing Trumpism to Nazism, because, in the past, the “Weimar analogy” was used to justify anti-democratic structures of governance. The latter is an important trap to avoid, because we ultimately conclude that Trump’s monstrous merging of neoliberal and Nazi tendencies can only be overcome with democratic struggle.