2025/10/21 by Alexander J. Means, Alberto C. Magalhães Neto · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Political theory and Gramsci #Critical Theory and Philosophy #Communism, Protests, Social Movements
paper · doi:10.1080/14767724.2025.2575961
openalex publication_date 2025/10/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
This article analyzes the emergence of the global New Right and its assault on democratic education. Drawing on Frankfurt school critical theory and international studies of the far-right, the authors examine the structural, psychological, and educational preconditions that have enabled a far-right authoritarian wave across national contexts including the United States, Brazil, Hungary, Italy, and India. They argue that the New Right has taken advantage of the conjunctural crises of global capitalism and neoliberalism through ‘metapolitical’ strategies including appropriation of progressive-left concepts such as Gramscian cultural hegemony and decolonisation. Central to this effort is a global authoritarian assault on education and cultural institutions, aimed at dismantling critical literacy, academic freedom, and democratic subject formation. The article proposes an ‘antifascist metapolitics’ for educational studies that resists the instrumentalization of education under both neoliberalism and neofascism, and calls for pedagogical and political strategies that cultivate historical consciousness, pluralism, and democratic solidarity. The authors conclude by advocating for international counter-hegemonic alliances to confront the global resurgence of authoritarianism.