Nationalism & Liberal Democracy
Understand the rise of nationalism and the crisis of liberal democracy.
There used to be one counterculture in America. Now there are two. The left counterculture—what critic Wesley Yang calls the “successor ideology”—sees the United States as fundamentally corrupt and irredeemable, a systemically racist polity desperately in need of massive government intervention to rectify centuries of brutality and oppression. The right counterculture, meanwhile, sees America as on the verge of collapse, a frightening place ruled by a bureaucratic-woke-medical-corporate “regime.”
In this seminar, led by political commentator Matthew Continetti, fellows will survey the contemporary political landscape and the ideologies – populism, nationalism, socialism, and liberalism – that surround us.
Image Credit: Nashville MAGA Rally, May 29, 2018 (Edited), Tabitha Kaylee Hawke | Sen. Bernie Sanders in a sea of supporters at a November 3, 2019, rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Scott Heins/Getty Images via Vox
This course is part of our residential Political Studies Program. Fellows participate in morning seminars, and meet prominent men and women in public life over afternoon and evening sessions. Up to 36 fellows will be selected.
Faculty
Matthew Continetti
Matthew Continetti is resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Prior to joining AEI, he was Editor in Chief of the Washington Free Beacon. His articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
Matthew Continetti
Matthew Continetti is resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on American political thought and history, with a particular focus on the development of the Republican Party and the American conservative movement in the 20th century. He is the founding editor The Washington Free Beacon and was Editor in Chief until 2019. Prior to joining the Beacon, he was Opinion Editor of The Weekly Standard, where he remained a Contributing Editor until 2018.
The author of The K Street Gang: The Rise and Fall of the Republican Machine (Doubleday, 2006), Continetti’s articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post.
A 2003 graduate of Columbia University, where he majored in history, Continetti lives in McLean, Virginia.
