From the End of History to the Populist Turn and Beyond: Ideology’s Misfortunes in Globalization Theory and Global Activism

ABSTRACT

This article maps the development of the debate on globalization and ideology since “end of history” moment in the 1990s, through the 2008 financial crash, until the current ascendance of the populist right. The first part introduces the concept of ideology and engages with the “end of ideology” thesis advanced by exponents of neoliberalism and often echoed by their challengers on the left. The second part highlights some of the adverse implications of this disdain for ideology in anti-neoliberal movements and their substitutive fixation with prefigurative politics. Finally, the third part considers the ongoing populist wave. My argument is that populist claims are articulated as components of established ideologies and need to be challenged in light of their hosts’ core beliefs. This dovetails with my critique of the tendency of some scholars to dismiss widely recognizable ideological categories and instead proliferate new-fangled isms ill-suited to provide orientation on the ideological terrain. The article concludes by taking a glimpse into the possible futures of ideology and the prospects for a revival of progressive politics. It posits that the left needs to reconnect with its rich intellectual history and thereby reclaim its once unsurpassed ability to project compelling ideological visions.

KEYWORDS:

• Ideology
• anti-neoliberalism
• prefiguration
• populism

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Institute of Philosophy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, the School of Philosophy at Renmin University of China, and the Network for Critical Studies of Global Capitalism, and especially Jerry Harris and Marek Hrubec, for inviting me to present a paper from which this article derives at the conference “The Future of Globalization” (Beijing, October 11–14, 2019). I would also like to thank the reviewers of International Critical Thought for their detailed and generous feedback.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on Contributor

Rafal Soborski is Professor of International Politics at Richmond: The American International University in London. He has taught extensively in areas of global studies and international politics and has published several articles and chapters on globalization, ideology, social movements and green political thought. His first monograph, Ideology in a Global Age: Continuity and Change, was published in 2013 by Palgrave Macmillan. His most recent book is Ideology and the Future of Progressive Social Movements (Rowman & Littlefield International 2018). He is the editor of The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Global Studies and chairs the Global Studies Network (https://onglobalization.com/about).