Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World

The rise of authoritarian, nationalist forms of populism and the implications for rural actors and settings is one of the most crucial foci for critical agrarian studies today, with many consequences for political action. Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World reflects on the rural origins and consequences of the emergence of authoritarian and populist leaders across the world, as well as on the rise of multi-class mobilisation and resistance, alongside wider counter-movements and alternative practices, which together confront authoritarianism and nationalist populism. The book includes 20 chapters written by contributors to the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI), a global network of academics and activists committed to both reflective analysis and political engagement. Debates about ‘populism’, ‘nationalism’, ‘authoritarianism’ and more have exploded recently, but relatively little of this has focused on the rural dimensions. Yet, wherever one looks, the rural aspects are key – not just in electoral calculus, but in understanding underlying drivers of authoritarianism and populism, and potential counter-movements to these. Whether because of land grabs, voracious extractivism, infrastructural neglect or lack of services, rural peoples’ disillusionment with the status quo has had deeply troubling consequences and occasionally hopeful ones, as the chapters in this book show. The chapters in this book were originally published in The Journal of Peasant Studies.

Preface 1. Emancipatory rural politics: confronting authoritarian populism Ian Scoones, Marc Edelman, Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Ruth Hall, Wendy Wolford and Ben White 2. Counterrevolution, the countryside and the middle classes: lessons from five countries Walden Bello 3. People and places left behind: work, culture and politics in the rural United States Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad and Cynthia M. Duncan 4. Power and powerlessness in an Appalachian Valley – revisited John Gaventa 5. The rural roots of the rise of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey Burak Gürel, Bermal Küçük and Sercan Tas 6. Rural rage: the roots of right-wing populism in the United States Chip Berlet and Spencer Sunshine 7. Neoliberal developmentalism, authoritarian populism, and extractivism in the countryside: the Soma mining disaster in Turkey Fikret Adaman, Murat Arsel and Bengi Akbulut 8. The vanishing exception: republican and reactionary specters of populism in rural Spain Jaume Franquesa 9. Understanding the silent majority in authoritarian populism: what can we learn from popular support for Putin in rural Russia? Natalia Mamonova 10. Authoritarian populism in rural Belarus: distinction, commonalities, and projected finale Aleh Ivanou 11. Land grabbing and the making of an authoritarian populist regime in Hungary Noémi Gonda 12. Authoritarian populism and neo-extractivism in Bolivia and Ecuador: the unresolved agrarian question and the prospects for food sovereignty as counter-hegemony Mark Tilzey 13. Pockets of liberal media in authoritarian regimes: what the crackdown on emancipatory spaces means for rural social movements in Cambodia Alice Beban, Laura Schoenberger and Vanessa Lamb 14. Confronting agrarian authoritarianism: dynamics of resistance to PROSAVANA in Mozambique Boaventura Monjane and Natacha Bruna 15. Populism from above and below: the path to regression in Brazil Daniela Andrade 16. ‘They say they don’t see color, but maybe they should!’ Authoritarian populism and colorblind liberal political culture Michael Carolan 17. Agrarian anarchism and authoritarian populism: towards a more (state-)critical ‘critical agrarian studies’ Antonio Roman-Alcalá 18. ‘Actually existing’ right-wing populism in rural Europe: insights from eastern Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and Ukraine Natalia Mamonova, Jaume Franquesa and Sally Brooks 19. Unpacking ‘authoritarian populism’ and rural politics: some comments on ERPI Henry Bernstein 20. From ‘populist moment’ to authoritarian era: challenges, dangers, possibilities Marc Edelman

Ian Scoones is Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, and co-director of the ESRC STEPS Centre. Marc Edelman is Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Saturnino M. Borras Jr. is Professor of Agrarian Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, the Netherlands, an Adjunct Professor at China Agricultural University in Beijing, and a fellow of the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute (TNI). Lyda Fernanda Forero was, until April 2020, coordinator of the Agrarian and Environmental Justice (AEJ) program of the Transnational Institute. She is currently with the secretariat of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA). Ruth Hall is Professor of Land and Agrarian Studies at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Wendy Wolford is Polson Professor of Global Development at Cornell University, USA. Ben White is Emeritus Professor of Rural Sociology at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague.