A new authoritarian individualism?

Notes for a characterization of the New Extreme Right-wing in Latin America

Abstract

This article presents an overview of academic reflection on the current rise of the new extreme right-wing movements that are sweeping the Western political scene, putting liberal democracy in crisis. It questions the relevance of characterizing this phenomenon as a new authoritarian individualism, based on the analysis of the anti-quarantine movement in Argentina, focusing on Latin American specificity but also taking up some general debates around studies on the authoritarian personality and modes of neoliberal subjectivation, which allow us to think about the paradoxical nature of the advance of consumer society and the triumph of the market economy. The aim is to update these discussions in the light of the discursive re-articulations implied by the Covid-19 pandemic.