The early Frankfurt School’s Studies in Authority sought to understand modern society’s susceptibility to authoritarian leadership. This research project resulted in two major works in 1936, Fromm’s Studies on Authority and Family and Horkheimer’s Egoism and Freedom Movements, and produced the concept of the Authoritarian Character. After 1939 the project was abandoned, Fromm and the Frankfurt School went their separate ways, and the Frankfurt School’s research focus turned in a new direction. This paper argues that, appearances notwithstanding, research on the (...) Authoritarian Character did not end in 1939 and that Fromm’s later work on necrophilia and biophilia in the 1960s-70s should be reconsidered as his attempt to complete the Frankfurt School’s research project on the Authoritarian Character. (shrink)

This paper develops a theory of authoritarianism as an architecture of obedience, integrating classical social psychology with fiduciary–epistemic theory. It argues that obedience is not merely behavioural but epistemic: to obey is to substitute another’s judgment for one’s own, to silence conscience, and to inhabit categories fabricated by authority. Situating Nazi concentration camp guards within this framework, the analysis reframes them not as aberrant sadists but as epistemic subjects shaped by systemic betrayal. -/- The argument advances four contributions. Diagnostic: (...) authoritarianism is analysed as amplified epistemic clientelism, scaling ordinary bargains of dependence into systemic capture. Psychological: cognitive dissonance is reconceptualised as a structural epistemic event, its dual trajectories—collapse or endurance—explaining both routinised complicity and rare acts of bounded freedom. Philosophical: authority is redefined as fiduciary–epistemic trusteeship, distinguished from Raz’s exclusionary model and other procedural accounts by its duties of candour, care, and loyalty. Normative: atrocity prevention is shown to require fiduciary–epistemic scaffolds and, ultimately, an epistemic constitution capable of dignifying dependence, protecting dissonance, and preserving pluralism. -/- Guards thus appear both as enforcers and casualties: participants in atrocity, yet entrapped in an epistemic order that converted trust into betrayal. Their condition exposes authoritarianism as fiduciary breach in nuce, where candour, care, and loyalty collapse into propaganda, coercion, and distortion. By analysing the guard as an epistemic subject, the paper provides a framework for diagnosing past atrocities and for resisting new architectures of obedience, from populist propaganda to algorithmic governance. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15123.34089. (shrink)

This paper revisits the conceptual history of the early Frankfurt School’s investigations into the authoritarian character, the set of sadomasochistic character traits that dispose an individual or group to seek their own domination. This research project, which produced Fromm’s Studies on Authority and Family and Horkheimer’s Egoism and Freedom Movements in 1936 and ended in 1939 with Fromm’s expulsion from the Frankfurt School, is generally held to have been a theoretically-unproductive and abortive endeavour. We dispute such a reading by reconstructing (...) the key concepts and methods of this research project, and demonstrating its breadth and coherence. In so doing we illustrate the centrality of Fromm’s contribution to the Frankfurt School early work on authority and indicate that the proper point of origin for those seeking to grasp the Frankfurt School’s research on the authoritarian character is 1930, the year in which Fromm joined the Frankfurt School. (shrink)

Is authoritarian power ever legitimate? The contemporary political theory literature—which largely conceptualizes legitimacy in terms of democracy or basic rights—would seem to suggest not. I argue, however, that there exists another, overlooked aspect of legitimacy concerning a government’s ability to ensure safety and security. While, under normal conditions, maintaining democracy and rights is typically compatible with guaranteeing safety, in emergency situations, conflicts between these two aspects of legitimacy can and often do arise. A salient example of this is the COVID-19 (...) pandemic, during which severe limitations on free movement and association have become legitimate techniques of government. Climate change poses an even graver threat to public safety. Consequently, I argue, legitimacy may require a similarly authoritarian approach. While unsettling, this suggests the political importance of climate action. For if we wish to avoid legitimating authoritarian power, we must act to prevent crises from arising that can only be resolved by such means. (shrink)

Authoritarianism is on the rise globally and poses a serious threat to civil society. We define this term and show the difference between old- and new-school autocrats. Historical data demonstrate a developmental course for how autocracies start, persist, and end. They also show democracy occurs in waves, rising and falling at different periods over time. Much research attention has focused on right-wing authoritarianism. To balance this, we detail features of the left-wing version as well and its relation to (...) postmodernism. We then look at the authoritarian personality type and how easy it is for a would-be dictator to hijack populist sentiment and dismantle democratic institutions. Polarization, political capture and economic inequality are highlighted as three key factors that explain democratic erosion in the U.S. and around the world. We conclude with suggestions for how to stop dictatorships and reform societies to make them more resilient to autocratic takeover. (shrink)

This paper calls for a paradigm shift in studying academic dependency, towards the paradigm of brokered dependency. Using Chinese academia as an example, I demonstrate how the neocolonial condition of academic dependency is always mediated through blockage-brokerage mechanisms. The two most salient blockage-brokerage mechanisms of dependency in the Chinese context are linguistic barrier and authoritarian malepistemization, and the effects of the latter consist of three layers: institutional, informational and incorporational. On top of their domestic impacts, those mechanisms jointly exacerbate spectacularized (...) postcoloniality in anglophone-hegemonic global academic publishing. The paradigm of brokered dependency not only represents a more nuanced approach to the study of academic dependency, but also underscores the fact that the dismantling of the neocolonial condition cannot be conceived and pursued in isolation from comprehending and confronting the authoritarian condition, especially when the latter pertains under the disguise of anticolonialism. (shrink)

It is becoming increasingly common for authoritarian regimes to leverage digital technologies to surveil, repress and manipulate their citizens. Experts typically refer to this practice as digital authoritarianism (DA). Existing definitions of DA consistently presuppose a politically repressive agent intentionally exploiting digital technologies to pursue authoritarian ends. I refer to this as the intention-based definition. This paper argues that this definition is untenable as a general description of DA. I begin by illustrating the current predominance of the intention-based definition (...) (Section 2). Section 3 then presents four counterexamples to this definition: benign surveillance; digital sovereignty; attention-harvesting algorithms; and tech-induced loneliness. In each case, we witness authoritarianism being promoted by digital technologies without any evidence of this being intentionally caused by politically repressive agents. Based on these observations, I contend that the intention-based definition is underinclusive and is therefore unsustainable. Section 4 outlines an improved definition of DA – what I call the promotion-based definition. Since this more expansive definition does not posit intentional, politically repressive agency as a precondition of DA, it can accommodate the counterexamples discussed in Section 3. Moreover, it enables us to catch a broader spectrum of cases of DA, such as tech-induced loneliness, which those adhering to the intention-based definition are prone to overlook. After outlining further practical benefits of the promotion-based definition, I argue that we still need to distinguish between intentional and unintentional forms of DA since they call for distinct types of remedial action. -/- . (shrink)

Effective climate protection will increasingly be possible only through massive restrictions on freedom. Against this background, some people demand a system change and consider the necessity of eco-authoritarianism to enforce a full brake on climate change. Others see the threat of an eco-dictatorship already partly realised by the judicial recognition of a right to climate protection. The authors analyse the concept of eco-authoritarianism, showing that it is necessary to distinguish between authoritarian measures or institutions and an authoritarian regime. (...) Eco-authoritarian policies may be desirable as a measure with clear boundaries in scope and duration, to protect the well-being of citizens and the democratic systems. Such policies, however, do not necessarily pose a threat to the free democratic order. With regard to the German constitution, the authors show that the law is resilient both against an unhindered progression of climate change and against a change of the political system to a full-fledged eco-authoritarian regime. Neither the constitutional obligation to protect the climate nor the social reality of ecological boundaries necessarily lead to an “eco-dictatorship”. (shrink)

With Hegel’s metaphysics attracting renewed attention, it is time to address a long-standing criticism: Scholars from Marx to Popper and Habermas have worried that Hegel’s metaphysics has anti-individualist and authoritarian implications, which are particularly pronounced in his Philosophy of History, since Hegel identifies historical progress with reason imposing itself on individuals. Rather than proposing an alternative non-metaphysical conception of reason, as Pippin or Brandom have done, this article argues that critics are broadly right in their metaphysical reading of Hegel’s central (...) concepts. However, they are mistaken about what Hegel’s approach entails, when one examines the specific types of states discussed by the philosopher in his Philosophy of History. Even on a traditional metaphysical reading, Hegel is not only non-authoritarian; he also makes a powerful argument concerning freedom, whereupon the freest society involves collective oversight and the shaping of social structures so as to ensure that they benefit everybody. (shrink)

In this paper, I will deal with the issue of the relationship between trust, authoritarian democratic regimes and crises. I will pay special attention to the issue of the relationship between personal trust and trust in institutions. I will try to point out the way in which distrust in institutions develops in authoritarian regimes, as well as the populist way of diminishing the importance of institutions and trust in them, which are seen as obstacles to an efficient relationship between the (...) leader and the people. Finally, I will say a few words about trust in science and its way of approaching the public. (shrink)

This paper reconstructs the phenomenon of digital authoritarianism in post- Abe Japan as an inherent contradiction of populism. By analyzing the political communication strategies of Takaichi Sanae and the conservative digital networks surrounding Abe Shinzo, it redefines the structure of authority in the digital era as a triadic interaction among authority, crowd, and algorithm. Traditional populist frameworks are based on the dichotomy of ”people versus elite.” This study expands that into a triadic logic—authority versus crowd versus algorithm—demonstrating how online (...) emotional amplification, conspiracy narra- tives, and affective identity politics stabilize a new form of symbolic legitimacy. Particular attention is paid to the Japanese specificity of digital authoritarian- ism: the synthesis of tradition, nation, and female leadership. Takaichi’s rhetorical performance combines the progressive imagery of a female leader with a regressive nationalist revival, functioning as a “hybrid populist” capable of reconciling liberal expectation with conservative desire through algorithmic mediation. Finally, the paper situates these dynamics within the framework of infocratic governance—a form of control exercised not through coercion but through infor- mation modulation. The ethical limits of digital populism are thus exposed as the contradiction between expressive freedom and algorithmic dependence. (shrink)

As the Philippines continues to grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, new modalities of instruction are being devised by the administration of Rodrigo Duterte, through the Department of Education (DepEd). Among these are what the DepEd provided as self-learning modules (SLMs) combined with “alternative learning delivery modalities” which include radio-based instruction (DepEd 2020). The SLMs and radiobased instruction are the most common modalities of learning, being the most accessible especially for the poor students of the country. This paper (...) will examine the pedagogical and political dimensions of a radio-based instruction. Coming from the tradition of philosophy of technology that emphasizes the political nature of technology, I will argue how the logic of radio broadcasting predetermines a specific pedagogy and form of communication. I will further argue how this predetermined form of communication carries the danger of being an effective support for authoritarianism. (shrink)

Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are notoriously uninterested in truthtelling. They also often appear uninterested even in constructing plausible falsehoods. What stands out above all is the brazenness and frequency with which they repeat known falsehoods. In spite of this, they are not always greeted with incredulity. Indeed, Republicans continue to express trust in Donald Trump in remarkable numbers. The only way to properly make sense of what Trump and Johnson are doing, we argue, is to give a greater role (...) to audience relativity - and in some cases, audience participation - in notions like bullshitting and bald-faced lying. In this paper, we develop a new understanding of bullshitting, one that includes bald-faced lying, and recognizes that different communicative acts may be directed at different audiences with a single utterance. In addition, we argue for recognition of the category of bald-faced bullshitting, a particular speciality of both Trump and Johnson, and one especially useful to authoritarian leaders. (shrink)

The return of authoritarian great powers, the slowing of the democratic wave, and outright reversion to authoritarian rule pose important questions for international theory. What are the implications of an international system populated with more autocracies? This question was posed by a diverse array of social scientists, public intellectuals, and policy analysts in response to the autocratic wave in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. We show that a series of conversations emanating from quite diverse intellectual priors – from Christian (...) realists to international lawyers and disaffected Marxists – converged on the risks these autocratic regimes posed to democratic regimes and the international order they sought to forge. These risks included unconstrained rulers, an inability to sustain international commitments and political processes that undermined rational deliberation at home and spread disinformation abroad. The reading of this work suggests an under-appreciated strand of liberal international relations theory, and these debates have direct implications for liberal arguments about the democratic peace. Rather than theorizing why democracies avoid war, they underscore the importance of understanding why authoritarian and democratic countries are particularly prone to conflict. (shrink)

Conservatism is often described, both by its advocates and its critics, as a political orientation committed to limited government, restraint of state power, and respect for inherited institutions. Its authoritarian expressions are therefore frequently treated as aberrations of leadership failure, populist corruption, or desperate reactions to social change. These clichés, however, obscure a deeper and more consistent structural reality. Conservatism’s recurring authoritarianism is not a contradiction of its principles, nor a pathological deviation from them. It is an ontological consequence (...) of its core design logic. Conservatism does not primarily seek to make government small. It seeks to make reality manageable. It does so by narrowing the range of what is recognized as legitimate human experience, legitimate social organization, and legitimate future possibility. Authoritarian enforcement emerges not as a betrayal of conservative ideals, but as the necessary mechanism by which a deliberately restricted ontology is maintained under conditions of social and historical change. (shrink)

The article examines issues related to the rise of authoritarianism in the context of geopolitical changes and shifts. Societies began to demand charismatic leaders and other changes due to declining trust in democratic institutions and a combination of political, economic, and informational factors. The emphasis is on revealing the basic characteristics of autocracy, its growing popularity and acceptance in the world as a countermeasure to existing conflicts and local wars. It is a form of state protection and guaranteed stability, (...) as well as an adequate level of economic development. However, it does involve certain restrictions on democratic rights and freedoms. The authors draw attention to the growing political influence of authoritarian countries around the world, the population's preference for strong leadership, and their increasing involvement in making crucial decisions about the current international situation. This is not least due to the weakening of liberal democracy and international law, as well as changing priorities in foreign policy, primarily that of the US political leadership as the guarantor of world law and order. It is a cause for concern that there is growing support for political parties that use authoritarian language and symbols. The authors believe that global poverty, environmental shocks, and tensions between indigenous populations and migrants shape electoral preferences during geopolitical changes and increased authoritarianism. Particular focus is given to Russia's role in establishing authoritarian traditions and exporting them to other countries. The authors emphasise the significance of the close connection between far-right forces around the world and the Russian autocracy which is increasingly exhibiting neo-totalitarian characteristics. The inability to resist the rise of authoritarian tendencies will contribute to a change in the political configuration of the world. This will have serious and lasting consequences in the context of the establishment of global democracy. (shrink)

The classical notion of bullshit requires that speakers make an assertion, are indifferent to its truth and seek to conceal their indifference. In this paper we examine bald-faced bullshit, a form of bullshit characterized by the speaker’s unconcealed indifference to truth, and we argue that it fulfills five functions in populist and authoritarian politics. The notion of bald-faced bullshit helps to better understand current populist and authoritarian speech which uses bullshit for (1) evasion, (2) attention-seeking, (3) power projection, and (4) (...) the systematic paralysis of the epistemic institutions in democratic societies. Crucially, it also has a (5) norm-erosive effect on public discourse by undermining the norms of assertion. By openly violating these norms, populist and authoritarian politicians create social spaces where truthfulness is irrelevant, hindering informed decision-making and eroding the foundations of democratic deliberation. (shrink)

Claude Ake was interested in how the depoliticization of African societies has led to their existing in a state of permanent crisis, and, in particular, to the impossibility of their development. He understood depoliticization as a situation where the right to possess a political sphere of life is withheld from most members of the state and, at the same time, politics is monopolized by those in power. He showed the error of seeing the African crisis primarily as an economic crisis (...) and emphasized that in the literature concerning African problems it was mistakenly assumed that African political elites were interested in development. Ake’s thoughts about the connection between, on the one hand, authoritarian power and the depoliticization of African societies, and, on the other, the lack of development does not exhaust the question of the crisis of the African state. But his opinions are valuable as an African viewpoint, which is not often taken into account. (shrink)

In 1950 Adorno et al .'s The Authoritarian Personality study warned that American society contained a minority of individuals whose characters made them prone to become fascists in certain circumstances and that this was a danger common to contemporary industrial society. After early acclaim critics argued that the main threat came from left-wing authoritarian individuals. But research in several countries failed to establish their existence. We trace and evaluate this debate, largely defending the original research. Subsequent argument suggested that the (...) concept of authoritarianism was becoming outdated in post-industrial society, a view that we strongly challenge. While defending the diagnosis and purpose of the original research, we conclude by endorsing the argument that authoritarianism is better described in terms of attitude rather than personality. This gives a clearer psychological description of political movements of the far right and offers more direct measures for their reduction. (shrink)

The present paper offers a libertarian reading of one of the most important Chinese novels of the twentieth century, The Travels of Laocan, written by Chinese entrepreneur Liu E between 1903 and 1906. I start with an exposition of the ideas associated with the concept of “Asian values,” the evident cultural unviability of this notion, and how “Asian authoritarianism” has been rationalized and justified on the basis of a Hobbesian conception of human nature. Next, I examine Liu E’s life (...) and career as an entrepreneur in a highly interventionist society. Finally, I focus on his magnum opus, The Travels of Laocan, a fictionalized autobiography that explains Liu E’s philosophical and libertarian ideas. (shrink)

This essay advances what I call the Algorithmic Authoritarianism Hypothesis: that artificial intelligence (AI) and its digital infrastructure do not create authoritarianism from nothing but radically accelerate its social, psychological, and institutional preconditions. Drawing upon Hannah Arendt’s phenomenology of loneliness, Michel Foucault’s analysis of disciplinary power, Gilles Deleuze’s “societies of control,” Byung-Chul Han’s psychopolitics, and Karl Marx’s theory of alienation, the essay interprets the current democratic erosion—especially in the United States—as a technologically mediated return of twentieth-century totalitarian tendencies. (...) The argument integrates philosophical inquiry with empirical evidence of political backsliding, inequality, and digital surveillance. The result is a framework for understanding how AI-driven governance transforms classical domination into predictive modulation, producing a soft totalitarianism that feels voluntary while undermining the very conditions of human freedom. (shrink)

This paper examines the paradoxical dynamics of political leadership and mass reception in contemporary Japan. Specifically, it highlights how factions such as the Aso group strategically utilize the symbolic legacy of former Prime Min- ister Shinzo Abe to promote Takaichi Sanae, despite simultaneous criticisms of religious–political collusion that were central to Abe’s era. Through an analysis of Yahoo! Japan comment sections (Yafukome), this study demonstrates how online masses accept and even embrace internal contradictions: condemning the Unifica- tion Church while praising (...) Abe as a heroic figure. This contradiction reveals the mechanism by which populist energy is absorbed into the party system. The comparative perspective further situates this phenomenon alongside Ger- man cases of digital populism, showing that, in both contexts, social media spaces function as ”pseudo-consensus machines.” These machines allow contradictory sen- timents to be mobilized without resolution, thus reproducing the structural logic of prewar organizations such as Japan’s Taisei Yokusankai. Ultimately, this paper ar- gues that in the age of social networks, masses are not only controlled by top-down propaganda, but also by the affective circuits of self-reinforcing digital populism. (shrink)

This article advances the Algorithmic Authoritarianism Hypothesis: that contemporary artificial intelligence does not generate authoritarianism ex nihilo, but functions as a powerful accelerator of its political, psychological, and institutional preconditions. Drawing primarily on Hannah Arendt’s concepts of natality, judgment, and the erosion of the common world, alongside Michel Foucault’s account of governmentality and Shoshana Zuboff’s analysis of instrumentarian power, the article argues that algorithmic governance reshapes the conditions under which democratic action remains possible. By rendering social behaviour predictable, (...) optimisable, and anticipatable, AI systems displace political authorship from collective judgment toward technical modulation, producing a form of “soft authoritarianism” that preserves electoral forms while hollowing out substantive freedom. Using the United States as an illustrative case rather than an exceptional one, the article diagnoses a contemporary “digital Weimar” condition in which loneliness, epistemic fragmentation, and predictive control converge. Against this tendency, it reclaims political natality as the capacity to interrupt algorithmic recurrence through spontaneous action and judgment. The article concludes by outlining the contours of an “algorithmic humanism” oriented toward preserving unpredictability, plurality, and democratic agency under conditions of technological acceleration. (shrink)

The years that followed the fall of the Berlin wall and various authoritarian regimes in different regions of the world, witnessed the growth of a wide literature on democratization, which was influenced more and more by the paradigm of transition and the “consolidation” of democracy. Since then, evaluations as well as perspectives through which were seen various regimes (the new democracies “with problems”) are developed mainly through the theoretical lens of consolidation paradigm, according to which full democratic consolidation was the (...) endpoint of regime transitions. But it has become clear today that in many countries, in which more than three decades have passed since the fall of authoritarian regimes, the issue of “completion” of democracy in their social and political context is still far from being a happy reality. The purpose of this paper is to criticize both in the theoretical and the empirical level, the concept of “consolidation of democracy”, seeing it as a non-valid concept for the study of democratization. This paper will argue that essentially the concept of consolidation is teleological and problematic in the sense that democracy is seen not as a process but an endpoint product. (shrink)

The racist killing of Georg Floyd in the Summer of 2020 created waves of protests not only in the U.S. but all over the globe. In Turkey, my home country, there were also street demonstrations that demanded justice for Floyd, but “Twitter activism” was more popular. Turkish-speaking-twitter became a hotbed for condemnations. Amidst an array of tweets condemning Floyd’s racist killing, one stood out and made it to the headlines of alternative media outlets. A former official of the authoritarian Turkish (...) government, Yusuf Yerkel, wrote the following tweet in Turkish on June 5, 2020, in response to Floyd’s racist killing; here, I provide an English translation of his infamous tweet (the Turkish original of which is still available on Yerkel’s account on Twitter): “The reason that protests grew to this extent in the U.S. seems to be based on a phenomenon, in H. Arendt’s terms, ‘banality of evil,’ which has become evident in the face of Floyd’s murder. An ordinary White cop’s atrocity as an “everyday job” was the tipping point.”. (shrink)

It is common to think of controlling tennis parents–the ones who push their children to succeed from a young age–as compromising their children’s well-being. But is this really the case? A look at the question of what makes any person’s life go well for her, as well as what does and doesn’t compromise well-being.

This working paper argues that the failure of Hong Kong’s 2019–20 mobilisation was epistemic before it was political. While millions sympathised with the movement, only a minority sustained dissent. The paradox is explained by integrating Epistemic Clientelism Theory with a reconceptualisation of cognitive dissonance as an epistemic event. Protest participation depended not simply on material costs or tactical choices, but on whether individuals could endure contradiction without collapsing into conformity, silence, or exit. The analysis shows how fiduciary–epistemic scaffolds — universities, (...) professional bodies, and media — failed or inverted, leaving citizens structurally and psychologically isolated. Without institutional buffers, the burdens of contradiction and fear were redistributed downward: youth and precarious actors disproportionately endured trauma and long-term mental health risks, while professionals rationalised withdrawal or exit. Situating Hong Kong in a comparative frame — Belarus, Iran, Taiwan, South Korea, and even established democracies — reveals the same dynamics of scaffold collapse or resilience. The normative conclusion is that freedom is not independence but bounded freedom: fragile autonomy sustained only when fiduciary–epistemic scaffolds dignify dependence, enabling plurality to survive both material repression and psychological fear. (shrink)

The social media industry lacks developed principles of professional ethics that it would need in order to better navigate the ethics of conforming to local media laws in authoritarian countries that lack meaningful protections for privacy, personal and political expression, and intellectual property. This chapter analyzes this question through three frameworks of professional ethics—journalism ethics, technology ethics, and business ethics—and the ways that social media resembles and crucially differs from these three industries.

This paper analyses the relationship between academic researchers and an authoritarian regime through theories of transitional justice and epistemic injustice to explicate how authoritarianism impacts knowledge production and development of a society. By case studies, the paper claims that although both theories could partially explain difficulties of production and spread of knowledge in the authoritarian-ruled society, it seems that each of their explanation taken solely is not adequate to address the problem. After reviewing literatures, the paper finds that (1) (...) transitional justice seems not able to explain the negative influences on knowledge on which an authoritarian regime has put the society and that (2) epistemic injustice seems not able to account for prejudices based on the political ideology of the regime. The author thereby proposes an interdisciplinary research project between the two fields so as not merely to seek a rather full understanding of the problem but to make contributions to them. (shrink)

Worsening energy crises and the growing effects of climate change have spurred, among other things, concerted efforts to tackle global problems through what the United Nations calls Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These are in turn argued to be best achieved via the adoption of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) as the vehicle for guiding our efforts. However, though these things are often presented as the solution to global issues, they are increasingly being used as a means to centralize power (...) and exacerbate growing authoritarian trends. This article aims to demonstrate how the narratives surrounding ESG mask this reality, taking as a solution one of the foundational causes of global wealth and power disparity. (shrink)

The “free world” was the political rhetoric used during the Cold War in contrast to the “communist” countries. However, the “free world” was manifestly never free: the state considerably interfered with people in their persons and their property. And the “communist” countries were manifestly never communist in the Marxist sense: there was no common ownership of the means of production with the absence of social classes, money, and the state. It would have been more accurate to call them the “authoritarian (...) world” and the “totalitarian world”. Today the “free world” is sometimes still used, but Western countries remain authoritarian in terms of taxation and restrictive legislation. The, by implication, “unfree world” is largely only somewhat more authoritarian. Why does this continuing authoritarianism exist in the West? (shrink)

Researchers and Institutional Review Board members often disagree about the permissibility of some parts or all of the former’s proposed research. At least sometimes, this disagreement is reasonable. This is often because there are competing values and no clear solution as to how to balance these values. Arguably, given that there are multiple reasonable ways in which these values might be balanced, IRBs are subject to an asymmetric public justification requirement. This requirement implies that IRBs should defer to researchers when (...) the disagreement is reasonable. After briefly defending this claim, this paper examines its implications with respect to three questions that IRBs face. We argue that IRBs should not impose a strict limit on payments to participants, that they should take a more expansive view of what types of research are authorized by broad consent forms, and there should be no hard cap on risks participants might choose to undergo. (shrink)

The 20th century was characterized by a radical paradigm shift from modernism to postmodernism. Postmodernism rejected the stances of objectivism, universalism and the construction of meta-narratives that were evident in the modern epoch. Postmodernism re-affirms subjectivism, perspectivism and particularism in knowledge attribution, acquisition and justification. Postmodernism therefore dethrones positivism, radical empiricism and all their objectivistic scientific edifices. Post-modernism has its roots in post-colonialism, de-colonialism and the agitations for racial and gender justice. This academic masterpiece used critical historical analysis, critical hermeneutics, (...) decolonial and postcolonial criticism to situate postmodernism as an emancipatory philosophy of method that safeguards marginalized modes of knowledge in the South from the epistemicide of Western Positivism. The paper analytically illuminated that postmodern epistemological ethos leads to the emergence of post-positivism in the natural sciences and interpretivism in the humanities and social sciences by propagating deconstructionist and emancipatory multi-disciplinary methodologies such as critical discourse analysis, phenomenological interpretation, critical race theory and critical gender theory. This paper further argued that multi-disciplinarity and trans-disciplinarity are inevitable constellations of the eminent emergency of the postmodern epoch. The paper adds to knowledge by painstakingly contending that postmodernism entrenches situated knowledge and multidisciplinary methodologies that are equally valid, reliable, cogent and credible. (shrink)

Our sense in editing this book is that the years since 2014 have shown that, however unpalatable, incoherent, and internally contradictory illiberal democracy may be, it is a political choice that is available at the ballot box in many countries. As critical scholars committed to democracy we have an obligation to understand its socio-historical construction, its emotional appeal, and its rhetorical force, to more effectively combat it. Ultimately, we believe that the difficulty many have had of admitting the political efficacy (...) of illiberal democracy as a term is due to an underlying crisis within liberalism itself: this is the fissured terrain that the phenomenon exploits. Examining illiberalism, liberalism, or democracy as static concepts is just as barren an approach as examining them in one country in isolation from their interactions with others. It is above all to the dynamic, comparative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of liberalism and its alternatives that this collection aims to contribute. (shrink)

The contemporary American political landscape is no longer defined merely by a divergence in policy preferences, but by a profound schism in neurobiological processing, cognitive styles, and psychological self-regulation. The convergence of the Trump administration's populist rhetoric, the strategic objectives of elite technocrats, and the mobilization of traditionalist social agendas suggests a systematic harnessing of specific psychological vulnerabilities. This report examines the data-driven evidence indicating that modern conservative movements capitalize on masculine insecurity, xenophobic threat detection, and emotional dysregulation to consolidate (...) power. If the United States is indeed progressing toward internal conflict, the evidence indicates the fault lines will likely align with psychological profiles: a confrontation between populations characterized by high threat sensitivity and low cognitive reflection-the "dumb and fearful"-against those demonstrating high conflict monitoring and analytical evidence-gathering capacities-the "intelligent and caring.". (shrink)

This paper examines the critique of Voegelin in Kelsens "Secular Religion". While Kelsen sets out with the false premise that secular world view can in principle have no religious character, his critique of Voegelin remains largely unimpaired by this mistake. With convincing arguments Kelsen criticises (1) Voegelins interpretation of modernity as an age of gnosticism, (2) Voegelins reinterpretation of enlightened and secular philosopher as gnostics in disguise and (3) Voegelins rejection of modern politics and, to a lesser degree, modern science. (...) I have also uploaded the critical margin notes that some person (unfortunately I do not know any more who) had been so friendly to sent me. The paper was originally written in German, but an English translation is available as well. (shrink)

The pantheist ontology of Baruch Spinoza (b.1632 – d.1677) is an attempt to deny the accountability of political evil. -/- Spinoza’s instinct for statist control and his distrust of the common man are displayed in Theological-Political Treatise (published 1670). His masterwork, Ethics (published posthumously in 1677), is a bold attempt (in the guise of ontology) to classify minds and bodies as attributes of the State. -/- In Ethics, Spinoza ‘outlaws’ any vantage point from which we can address or protest the (...) kind of ‘perfect power’ -- and its attendant evils -- that constitute the essence and existence of the State. (shrink)

The 2024 uprising in Bangladesh marks a significant victory in the fight against authoritarianism, yet it remains an incomplete revolution. Its true success will hinge on whether it can pave the way for a new political order that reflects the hopes and aspirations of its participants. In this commentary, I draw on Arendt’s concept of natality to explore this pivotal moment, as it emphasizes the need for ongoing creativity, active engagement, and the creation of new possibilities. I argue that (...) Bangladesh’s future will be shaped by the movement’s ability to channel its momentum into building a lasting and visionary political landscape that embodies the collective will of its people. (shrink)

‘Post-truth’ is a failed concept, both epistemically and politically because its simplification of the relationship between truth and politics cripples our understanding and encourages authoritarianism. This makes the diagnosis of our ‘post-truth era’ as dangerous to democratic politics as relativism with its premature disregard for truth. In order to take the step beyond relativism and ‘post-truth’, we must conceptualise the relationship between truth and politics differently by starting from a ‘non-sovereign’ understanding of truth.

This essay applies the framework developed in Authoritarianism and the Architecture of Obedience (Kahl, 2025) to contemporary U.S. politics. It examines the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! under pressure from President Donald Trump and the FCC as a case study in authoritarian epistemic capture. Obedience is analysed not merely as behaviour but as epistemic submission: the substitution of another’s judgment for one’s own, the silencing of conscience, and the inhabiting of categories fabricated by authority. Drawing comparisons with Nazi concentration (...) camp guards as test cases, the essay explores how dissonance is channelled into compliance and how fiduciary–epistemic scaffolds might resist such architectures of obedience. (shrink)

In the middle of the 20th century, cybernetics became entangled with the socialist and neoliberal transformations in Latin America. Both democratic socialists and market liberals appealed to cybernetic ideas about multi-level decentralization and adaptive control to coordinate society and promote welfare. By analyzing Chile as a case study, we explore the twin experiments of cyber-socialism and neoliberalism rooted in modernism and oscillating between top-down design and partial (constrained) decentralization. We show that the modernist and cybernetic ideas of “designing freedom” influenced (...) the Allende administration (1970-1973) and the Pinochet regime (1973-1990). The former experimented with cyber-socialism through Project Cybersyn and the latter with authoritarian neoliberalism. Focusing on the work of cybernetic scholars Stafford Beer and F.A. Hayek, we compare both regimes’ different but partially overlapping approaches to the design of constrained freedom. Several features of modernist thinking and cybernetics explain both experiments’ appeal and shortcomings. These lessons are relevant for contemporary debates about the future of liberal democracy, the information society, and the compatibility of freedom with artificial intelligence (AI). (shrink)

Recent literature on Christian nationalism by sociologists of religion in the United States identifies a perceived novel phenomenon: the fusion of authoritarian governmental forms with Christianity. However, the socio-historical origin of this international trend has been left relatively unexplored. Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to create a single international account that lends itself to future comparative theoretical frameworks and analyses through the term "Christofascism." -/- The chapter can also be accessed on google books at the link included in (...) the description. Finally, order the book on Routledge's website, also linked in the description. (shrink)

EN: This chapter aims to analyze the potential relationships between the climate crisis, the rise of new forms of authoritarianism, and capitalism—three phenomena that are crucial for understanding the global-scale political, economic, and environmental crisis we are currently experiencing. -/- ESP: Este capítulo tiene por objetivo analizar las posibles relaciones que existen entre la crisis climática, el auge de nuevos autoritarismos y el capitalismo, tres fenómenos que resultan cruciales para entender la crisis política, económica y ambiental que estamos experimentando (...) a nivel mundial. (shrink)

This essay examines the systematic destruction of American constitutional democracy during the first year of President Donald Trump's second administration (January 2025–January 2026). Written from the perspective of a Canadian citizen and scholar, it documents the authoritarian consolidation of power through mass deportations resulting in documented deaths and wrongful removal of U.S. citizens, systematic defiance of federal court orders, weaponization of the Department of Justice against political opponents, unprecedented purges of military leadership, economic warfare against democratic allies justified by fabricated (...) claims, and the deliberate destruction of institutional capacity for oversight and accountability. Drawing on assessments from over 1,000 law professors, multiple former Defense Secretaries, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and historians of fascism who have drawn explicit parallels to 1930s Germany, the essay establishes that expert consensus identifies these actions as authoritarian governance constituting a constitutional crisis. The philosophical core of the essay engages with the American Founders' understanding of tyranny, power, and the conditions necessary for republican government, demonstrating how current events represent precisely the consolidation of arbitrary power that the constitutional architecture was designed to prevent. Through analysis of foundational texts including the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and Jefferson's writings on natural rights, the essay argues that the current crisis vindicates the Founders' warnings about the fragility of republican government and the permanent threat of tyrannical ambition. The essay concludes with a philosophical argument about the moral obligations of citizens when constitutional democracy faces existential threat, examining the tension between partisan loyalty and fidelity to the constitutional order itself, and calling upon Americans across the political spectrum to defend the institutional foundations that make all political contestation possible. Written from Canada, it represents both a warning from a democratic ally and an act of solidarity with Americans fighting to preserve their republic. (shrink)

Academic freedom has often been defended in a progressivist manner: without academic freedom, creativity would be in peril, and with it the advancement of knowledge, i.e. the epistemic progress in science. In this paper, I want to critically discuss the limits of such a progressivist defense of academic freedom, also known under the label ‘argument from truth.’ The critique is offered, however, with a constructive goal in mind, namely to offer an alternative account that connects creativity and academic freedom in (...) a way that goes beyond mere reference to epistemic progress and involves reference to the freedom to think independently as the freedom we mean when we point to creativity and when we point to academic freedom. The resulting causal independence account is not only epistemologically stronger than a progressivist account, it also allows to counter the curbing of academic freedom in the name of progress. The latter becomes key, for instance, when authoritarian political regimes limit or negate academic freedom with reference to an epistemic progress suitably defined for that regime. (shrink)

This paper presents a structural definition of wokeism as a coercive moral doctrine that suppresses inquiry and reframes dialogue into a mechanism of belief enforcement through guilt and reputational threat. The definition offered is not based on polemic opposition, but on structural necessity. Academic institutions that enforce the behavioral norms of wokeism while refusing to define the doctrine create an epistemic closure loop. In such a system, critique is interpreted as harm, dissent as complicity, and dialogue becomes a performance of (...) moral loyalty rather than a search for truth. The paper proceeds by formally defining wokeism using the classical method of genus and differentia. It then analyzes institutional behavior to determine whether the doctrine, once embedded, behaves as the definition predicts. Through a series of six theorems, the paper shows that wokeism transforms the university from a space of inquiry into a system of enforcement. It insulates itself through semantic denial, collapses constitutional and logical coherence, and converts dissent into guilt without recourse to argument. Objections are addressed not as neutral critiques, but as defensive patterns within the structure itself. The analysis concludes that the institutional adoption of wokeism violates the foundational principles of American higher education. An institution that suppresses critique and enforces belief without accountability has broken the public trust that legitimizes its existence. What remains is not education, but doctrinal control under the appearance of virtue. Keywords: wokeism, epistemic closure, coercive moral doctrine, belief enforcement, academic institutions, philosophical inquiry, structural recursion, dialogue suppression, institutional authoritarianism, moral epistemology. (shrink)

Christian nationalism and Christofascism theorists have surrendered the discursive floor to their empiricist critics. A flurry of recent research has asserted that critical paradigms within the sociology of religion are ideologically committed and empirically invalid. In this reply to Jesse Smith’s “Old Wine and New Wineskins” (2024), I contend several things: 1. Christian nationalism and Christofascism research is based in empirical validity, 2. claims of “conceptual slippage” are irrelevant given the sociopolitical context, 3. rejection of the critical perspective reifies the (...) unjust power structure through a normative appeal to rational-legal scientific authority, and 4. critical epistemology in the sociology of religion remains a crucial tool in combating authoritarian slippage. It is my hope that this reply sparks further reflection and debate into the role of sociology and the nature of sociological praxis. (shrink)

A surprising feature of the White Rose anti-Nazi resistance pamphlets is their appeal to a foundational classical Chinese text, the Laozi (otherwise known as the Daodejing), to buttress their critique of fascism and authoritarianism. I argue that from the perspective of a 1942 educated readership, the act of quoting the Laozi functioned as a subtle and pointed nod to anti-fascist intellectuals in pre-war Germany, many of whom had interpreted the Laozi as an anti-authoritarian and pacifist text. To a sympathetic (...) reader, the Laozi therefore constituted an apt reference point for critiquing National Socialism. I then introduce a complication for this wartime reading of the Laozi from the perspective of its ambiguous reception in ancient Chinese political thought. I more specifically discuss an ancient line of interpretation of the Laozi that points in the direction of authoritarianism — in stark tension with the White Rose message of passive resistance and popular revolt. (shrink)