From Neoreaction to Alt-Right: A Schmittian Perspective

Abstract

In 2009, libertarian billionaire Peter Thiel wrote, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”1 Thiel’s statement challenged the basic premise of much of Western politics: the liberal democratic consensus that treats economic freedom and political democracy as two guiding stars to be pursued in tandem.2 In the decade since, the rise in conservative populist movements and leaders from Brexit to Bolsonaro, and particularly the 2016 election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, led many scholars to conclude that the liberal democratic consensus had collapsed–or was never really a consensus to begin with.3 The question then becomes: what will replace liberal democracy?.