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Understanding the Emergence of Authoritarian Capitalist States: Looking Backward to See Forward

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  • John Willoughby

Abstract

This paper examines how contemporary analysts can use the analytical legacy of earlier Marxist writers on fascism and authoritarianism to understand the present. I argue that the emergence of dictatorial rule in a capitalist society once organized by parliamentary institutions can best be interpreted as a response to an intensifying crisis of representation within parliamentary democracy. These crises come as changing material conditions disrupt systems of patronage and support that had previously integrated or embedded populations into a deceptively stable capitalist growth process. This analysis draws on Marx’s original analysis in The Eighteenth Brumaire , Gramsci’s and Trotsky’s writings during the interwar period, and the early postwar analysis of Nicos Poulantzas. The article does not find the state monopoly capitalist tradition of this era to be particularly useful for understanding present (or past) periods of capitalist authoritarianism. JEL Classification: B1, B2, B3, B5

Suggested Citation

  • John Willoughby, 2019. "Understanding the Emergence of Authoritarian Capitalist States: Looking Backward to See Forward," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 51(4), pages 670-686, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:51:y:2019:i:4:p:670-686
    DOI: 10.1177/0486613419843640
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. George A. Akerlof & Robert J. Shiller, 2015. "Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10534.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Marxist theory—ideology and alienation; Gramsci; Trotsky; Fascism and Authoritarianism; Poulantzas;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B1 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925
    • B2 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925
    • B3 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals
    • B5 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches

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