Crisis Point: Populism w/ Michael Bray

Does the rise of populisms of both Left and Right varieties constitute a crisis in democracy? Is this a new phenomenon or has there always been a contradictory relationship between capitalism and democracy? How does the erosion of democratic norms relate to other crises in the political economy? Why does the Left seem so incapable of effectively confronting this multitude of challenges?

Michael Bray is Professor of Philosophy at Southwestern University. He joins Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley to discuss democracy in the history of capitalism, populism as a mode of politics, and how to navigate the crisis of representative democracy in the coming decades.

Crisis Point is a limited series introducing the political economy of capitalist crises, providing historical and theoretical rigour to discourses around crisis in the present.

Recommended reading for this episode:

1) Bray, 'Rearticulating Contemporary Populism', Historical Materialism, 23 (2015)

2) Mouffe, For a Left Populism (2019)

Works referenced in this episode included:

Stuart Hall's The Great Moving Right Show

Hall on Poulantzas' authoritarian statism

Jairus Banaji on the incorporation of peasantries into capitalism

This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.