The Far-Right Threat in the United States: A European Perspective

• Date: 01 January 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/00027162211070060
• Published date: 01 January 2022
• Subject Matter: When Mass Politics Fails to Ensure Democracy

ANNALS, AAPSS, 699, January 2022 101

DOI: 10.1177/00027162211070060

The Far-Right

Threat in the

United States:

A European

Perspective

By

CAS MUDDE

1070060ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYTHE FAR-RIGHT THREAT IN THE UNITED STATES

research-article2021

The rise of Donald Trump has weakened the domi-

nance of the “American exceptionalism” paradigm in

analyses of U.S. politics, but the pivot to views of

the United States as part of a global trend toward

democratic backsliding ignores important, uniquely

“American” cultural, historical, and institutional attrib-

utes that make the country more at risk for democratic

erosion than most other established democracies. This

short article puts Trump, and his Republican Party, into

the broader comparative perspective of (European) far-

right studies. I argue that Trump in many ways fits

the “fourth wave” of postwar far-right politics, lay out

the unique challenge that the United States is facing

in terms of democratic erosion, and draw on the case

of Viktor Orbán in Hungary to learn lessons for the

United States. The article ends with some suggestions

of how democrats (not just Democrats) should address

the far-right Republican challenge to U.S. democracy.

Keywords: U.S. politics; democracy; far right; populism;

Donald Trump

It is rare for political scientists to write a New

York Times bestseller, but Steven Levitsky

and Daniel Ziblatt did just that, with their

insightful book How Democracies Die (2018).

It is the best contribution to what has quickly

become a new and popular genre of political

doomsday books, declaring the end of democ-

racy, liberalism, or both. What makes the suc-

cess of How Democracies Die even more

remarkable is that the authors look to other

countries to help explain what is happening

in the United States. Based on the authors’

extensive research on early-twentieth-century

Europe and late-twentieth-century Latin

America, Levitsky and Ziblatt provide an origi-

nal and thought-provoking understanding of

Cas Mudde is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF

Professor of International Affairs and a distinguished

research professor at the University of Georgia (USA)

as well as a professor II at the Center for Research on

Extremism (C-REX) of the University of Oslo (Norway).

Correspondence: mudde@uga.edu