Federico Finchelstein Ph.D. ’06, a professor of History at The New School for Social Research at the Eugene Lang College in New York City, will be leading a lecture titled “From Populism to Fascism?” on Tuesday afternoon.
According to the Institute for European Studies, studying how populism can lead to fascism is important today as near-fascist populists are increasingly denying the electoral legitimacy of their opponents. Finchelstein names Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro as examples.
This talk is the last lecture in a three part series titled “Challenges to Democracy: Authoritarianism and Extremism in Europe and Beyond,” presented by the Cornell University Institute for European Studies. The series is dedicated to celebrating the 30th anniversary of the IES department, with the purpose of highlighting contemporary challenges in Europe as democracy continues to backslide.
The first lecture took place on Feb. 3 with Cynthia Miller-Idriss, professor at the American University in Washington, D.C., titled “Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right.”
The second talk was on Feb. 15 with Elizabeth Becker, assistant professor at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio, titled “Impossible Pluralism? Religious Minorities, Migrants and Unsettled European Democracy.”
Finchelstein will be discussing the differences between fascism and populism and their relation to democratic procedures. The lecture will take a historical perspective by comparing past fascist attempts to deny the workings of democracy to current post-fascist and populist movements.
Finchelstein is an author of several books, including Fascist Mythologies, A Brief History of Fascist Lies, From Fascism to Populism in History, Transatlantic Fascism and The Ideological Origins of the Dirty War. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, CNN and more. Finchelstein received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2006.
To attend this speaking event, those interested can register here.
Correction, March 9, 1:56 p.m.: The initial version of this article misstated the date the event would be held as Wednesday, March 9. The correct date was Tuesday, March 8.