Jan-Werner Mueller

Legend has it that the first question Napoleon would ask about a military officer was not whether he was talented, but whether he was lucky.

While we cannot conflate today's far right and fascism, we must watch closely how the former develops.

Populist losers are more likely than not to cry fraud, because the entire basis of their appeal lies in the claim that they, and only they, represent “the real people.”

Among Democrats and many Republicans, there is a great temptation to dismiss US President Donald Trump’s administration as a bizarre aberration.

As Venezuela's crisis deepens, conservatives in the United States and elsewhere are gleefully pointing to the disaster of Chavismo to warn of the dangers of “socialism.” And, with Spain's left-wing Podemos party apparently splitting and Greece's Syriza steadily losing popularity since 2015, even impartial observers might conclude that the “pink tide” of left populism is nearing a low ebb.

With populism and authoritarianism on the rise around the world, there has been considerable talk of “resistance,” especially in the

It is now common knowledge that many democracies around the world are under pressure. But mounting threats to a particularly important democratic right have not received nearly enough attention.

Today, it appears that every single election in Europe can be reduced to one central question: “Is it a win or a loss for populism?” Until the Netherlands' election in March, a populist wave – or, as Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party,