Javier Milei is one of the most eccentric figures in what Cas Mudde (2020) describes as the ‘fourth wave’ of far-right politics. This wave, characterized by the rise of radical ideas and their mainstream acceptance, is a global trend that is reshaping democracies. It is marked by the normalization of previously fringe ideas and agendas, creating new challenges for established political systems. Argentina, with its long history of …
Brazil and the United States have convergent and divergent trajectories regarding the relationship between democracy and the rise and contention of autocratic populist leaders. In both countries, leaders with this profile came to power—Donald Trump, in the United States, in 2017 (and again in 2025), and Jair Bolsonaro, in Brazil, between 2018 and 2022. This convergence, however, contrasts with the divergence in the response of political institutions, especially …
In March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” aimed at rooting out “corrosive ideology” in the Smithsonian institutions and other federal sites of memory and history. The order accuses sites like the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), which has extensive exhibits on slavery and segregation, of making a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our …
