Class, Power and the State in the Trump Era
Description
This book uses concepts drawn from political economy, power structure research, and critical theory to explain and assess the unsettling American politics of the Trump era. Trumpism represents a form of authoritarian populist nationalism that amounts to a new form of right-wing politics, different from traditional Republican conservatism, in a bid for political power and hegemony. The book probes the historical and comparative roots of the Trump Era, its foundations in the early twenty-first century crisis of neoliberal capitalism, its location in and relationship to the elite American power structure, and its connections to emergent Far Right and Alt Right movements. Close attention is paid to the actual policies of the Trump administration, their economic and class character, and the ways in which they continued, and in some cases departed from, hyper-neoliberalism. The book evaluates the contradictions and prospects of Trumpian politics in light of the 2024 election and its implications for American democracy.
Reviews / Votes
"Joseph Peschek has given us the most comprehensive social scientific analysis of Trumpism yet attempted. Examining it as at once ideology, political movement, and administration, Peschek draws on a diverse set of intellectual tools to trace the complicated and disturbing lineages of the present moment. Deeply researched and rigorously argued, this study makes a vital contribution to the renewal of democratic politics by skillfully anatomizing its most dangerous enemy."
-Paul Heideman, author, Rogue Elephant: How Republicans Went from the Party of Business to the Party of Chaos
" Class, Power, and the State in the Trump Era offers a rigorously argued account of Trumpism that moves beyond personality and spectacle. Rather than treating Trump as an aberration, Peschek situates Trumpism within longer histories of elite class power, the crisis of neoliberalism, and state transformation. Drawing on critical political economy, power structure analysis, and Gramscian theory, the book conceptualizes Trumpism as a distinctive authoritarian-populist formation with historical antecedents in nationalism and right-wing populism. Integrating a comparative, global frame, Peschek shows how Trumpism functions as a symptom of structural crisis, advancing predatory economic policies while consolidating elite power within formally democratic institutions, with effects lasting well beyond Trump himself. Essential reading for scholars, students, and readers seeking rigorous, non-reductive explanations of authoritarian politics in the twenty-first century."
-Alix L. Olson, Emory University, author, The Ends of Resistance: Making and Unmaking Democracy
"We urgently need a sustained critical analysis of Trumpism - and the terrible dangers it poses to democracy and social progress-- from a critical political science perspective. For those seeking such an analysis, Joseph Peschek's smart new book on Trumpism is the place to turn. Even though sympathetic readers may disagree with some of Peschek's interpretations, his volume offers an indispensable theoretical and political tool for anyone trying to make sense of Trump's broad appeal and his counterrevolutionary politics."
-William Scheuerman, Rudy Professor of Political Science, Indiana University
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Joseph G. Peschek is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Hamline University.
