POP

Authoritarian nostalgia is key in the success of the far right.

Rather than an obstacle, it is a mobilising factor.

People who have fond (personal or indirect) memories of the right-wing authoritarian past vote far right.

Full data & replication materials available here: doi.org/10.7910/DVN/...

Authoritarian nostalgia and support for (populist radical) right parties | European Journal of Political Research | Cambridge Core Authoritarian nostalgia and support for (populist radical) right parties

🆕 What happens when the #RadicalRight looks fondly to the past? 🇪🇸🇵🇹
@populismblog.bsky.social & @steven-vanhauwaert.bsky.social introduce #AuthoritarianNostalgia — exploring how supporters of VOX and Chega connect today’s politics with memories of 🇪🇸 and 🇵🇹 authoritarian eras. #Populism
📖

The first output of the project—also completely open access—was a theoretical framework about far-right parties achieving success in countries once considered immune, published by @govandopp.bsky.social

Many other papers, chapters (and a book!) are coming soon

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

POLAR This space is about POLAR, my project on authoritarian legacies in Spain and Portugal, financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) with the grant 2022.03115.PTDC, and rea…

This is yet another output of the project POLAR, which I conducted between March 2023 and March 2025.
We already tested the idea in Italy — it works perfectly — and will soon test it in Germany (East + West), Poland, the UK, and Chile.

populismobserver.com/polar/

Finally, we show the average marginal effects of nostalgia on populist radical right party support…

We combine our items on authoritarian nostalgia into an index, showing average levels of authoritarian nostalgia across party supporters.

The vertical line represents the average level within each country.

When it comes to collective nostalgia, only the item about the “good old days” stands out for far-right support.
The others show no meaningful differences across voters — but overall, nostalgia levels are high everywhere!

We measure collective nostalgia and introduce four new survey items to capture authoritarian nostalgia in Spain and Portugal.

Nostalgia relates to a mythical past — it can be a golden age, an imperial or colonial past, or even a specific war or conflict.

Our focus is not just on nostalgia for the “good old days,” but specifically on nostalgia for an authoritarian past.

New publication out @ejprjournal.bsky.social 🔥

With @steven-vanhauwaert.bsky.social we introduce the concept of *authoritarian nostalgia* and show that positive evaluations of Franco and Salazar explain support for the far-right parties VOX and Chega

A 🧵

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Being ~30.000 words it's like 3 or 4 papers, but only half or a third of a standard book. I found the format quite good for what I had to say!

Elements in the History and Politics of Fascism Welcome to Cambridge Core

Cambridge Elements

www.cambridge.org/core/publica...

Sorry @casmudde.bsky.social but twenty years on, the Zeitgeist (unfortunately) needed an upgrade.

Writing this in 2025 sometimes felt like staring into a very deep, dark place.

I hope it sheds some light—if not hope.

Title page of the book "The Fascist Zeitgeist. Authoritarian Legacies and the Iberian Far Right"

Table of contents of the book "The Fascist Zeitgeist. Authoritarian Legacies and the Iberian Far Right"

🤓

🔭🤔🔎🔥

Banner featuring the text "Read now on Cambridge Core" along with the logos of the European Journal of Political Research and Cambridge University Press.

#OpenAccess from @ejprjournal.bsky.social -

Authoritarian nostalgia and support for (populist radical) right parties - https://cup.org/4h47BcQ

- Luca Manucci & @steven-vanhauwaert.bsky.social

#FirstView

It was a great experience — thanks for the invitation!

Academic outreach is often undervalued in CV evaluations, yet it’s essential for opening the ivory tower to the world and making science matter 🌏

@ics-ulisboa.bsky.social

The Art of Academic Outreach Highlights from today's seminar with Luca Manucci about the "The Art of Academic Outreach and Mind-blogging".

A summary of the main highlights from today's seminar about Academic Outreach and mind-blogging with Luca Manucci @populismblog.bsky.social

Many great reflections, check it here: open.substack.com/pub/sofiaser...

Cover of the powerpoint presentation with title "Mind-blogging: the art of academic outreach", in the background a family with 3D glasses looks surprised

📢 Next Wednesday, 8 Oct, I’ll be speaking at the Research & Publish Seminars hosted by @sofiaserrasilva.bsky.social

I’ll share what I’ve learned from 10 years of blogging on populism—academic outreach, online presence, grandma's test, and much more 🔥

Details 👉 sites.google.com/view/sofiase...

Cover of the forthcoming book "The Far Right and the Media. International Trends and Perspectives"

Coming soon, (unfortunaltely) it could not be more timely... 📺📰📻🚨

www.routledge.com/The-Far-Righ...

Thanks @populismblog.bsky.social for the opportunity to share and discuss our book. We are happy that the reception of the book is so positive. It would not have been possible without our exceptional authors!

@sofiavasilopoulou.bsky.social
@dafnoukos.bsky.social
@emiliapalonen.bsky.social
@mauritsmeijers.bsky.social
@tiondelisa.bsky.social
@bcastanho.bsky.social
@lindabos.bsky.social
@steven-vanhauwaert.bsky.social
@markuswagner.bsky.social
@fredpaxton.bsky.social
@christinajuen.bsky.social ‪

Populism An Introduction

New post for POP 📢

𝗣𝗼𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺: 𝗔𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 is a great resource for teaching and learning 🔥

It was a pleasure to publish this article written by the editors of this amazing project @robert-a-huber.bsky.social & @cerpintaxt.bsky.social  

us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/po...

An Introduction to Populism (Again…) Populism isn’t just another political buzzword (well, it's also that...)—but it is an important tool to understand today's world, if used correctly. The problem? Everyone talks about populism, but few can actually pin down what it is. Is it a dangerous threat to democracy—or a much-needed wake-up call? Is it ideology, performance, strategy… or all of the above? Who counts as “the people,” and who are “the elites”?

An Introduction to Populism (Again…)

Populism isn’t just another political buzzword (well, it's also that...)—but it is an important tool to understand today's world, if used correctly. The problem? Everyone talks about populism, but few can actually pin down what it is. Is it a dangerous threat…

Interview #62 – 20 Years of Populist Zeitgeist with Cas Mudde One of the most iconic pieces of academic literature on populism celebrates its 20th anniversary since publication. We’re referring to “The Populist Zeitgeist”, Cas Mudde’s paper published by…

The idea of a 'fascist Zeitgeist' is clearly a reference to (and an update of) the 2004 article by
@casmudde.bsky.social
about the *populist* Zeitgeist, a point of reference that recently became 20 years old and about which we had a chat with the author...

populismobserver.com/2024/04/02/i...

🌊 The fascist zeitgeist Luca Manucci argues that illiberalism and autocratisation have too readily been labelled as ‘populism’, an all-embracing concept which simply helps to provide cover to the neo-fascist cause. This has ...

I'm elaborating on the concept of Fascist Zeitgeist for a book I'm writing (😜), and I found this article I wrote for The Loop (@ecprtheloop.bsky.social) a couple of years ago, and decided it's time to share it again...

theloop.ecpr.eu/the-fascist-...

And they just published an excellent article about Club Deportivo Palestino! For a moment I thought they interviewed you about that...

Ultimo uomo is really cool, looking forward!

a man with a beard is wearing a cowboy hat and holding a rifle . Alt: Clint Eastwood nods with his hat, in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

In short: the “new Right” mobilizes more young & discontented citizens. Socio-economic issues still dominate, but socio-cultural ones — especially immigration — are gaining traction.

That's all for now, get free copies at this link 🔥
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/WU7GH...

Interestingly, as CH grows, its electorate shows signs of de-radicalization on democratic attitudes. On immigration, though, CH voters stand apart: far more negative, often linking immigration with crime. Yet paradoxically, they also support reducing inequality...