The road map towards a post-liberal future that Patrick Deneen proposes in Regime Change It goes through a return to a pre-liberal past. Going backwards can seem complicated. But, as in previous publications, in this imminently published book, of which a review has already appeared, the national-conservative philosopher identifies “Aristo-populism” as the method that would allow him to achieve it. It is not a new strategy. To find a relatively close referent, it was also that of the Falange. In fact, since the French Revolution, aristocratic populism has been one of the most common resources of the reactionary right. In a Twitter thread, Deneen explains that his new book promotes an update of the mixed constitution discourse of classical political philosophy. Viewed from this perspective, the horizon of aristopopulism evokes the re-establishment of an aristocracy within representative democracy according to some interpretations of the origins of the US. But Deneen’s aristocratic populism goes further because, in addition to rejecting the conception liberal of civil liberties, defends a rethinking of the relationship between the elites and the demos that is contemplated in the idyllic image that the Ancien Regime he propagated himself to legitimize himself.
Aristopopulism seeks to reestablish an aristocracy within democracy
As Laclau recounted, populism traces a horizontal line that divides the political territory into two antagonistic camps, that of they and the one of us , and allows the construction of a people opposable to the elites. Deneen’s aristopopulism adds a vertical line to this design and allows one to imagine a grill with two columns and two rows. In the first column is the degenerate regime that should be left behind; in the second, the virtuous regime towards which it would be necessary to go. And the first row opposes an aristocratic elite to the current oligarchic elite, and the second, the people of good people to the populace. In this case, starting from the hypothesis that good people are a perennial reality, the strategy of aristopopulism is posed as a persuasion about the need to exchange one elite for another and to abandon liberalism, which would be the cause of the unfortunate state of affairs by favoring the selfishness of the elites and the corruption of the customs of the people. Deneen describes the member of the new elite as “a self-aware aristocrat who understands that his main function and purpose in the social order is to ensure the goods that allow the human development of ordinary people: the family, the community, the good work, a culture that preserves and fosters order and continuity, and support for religious beliefs and institutions. While his aristopopulist strategy is reminiscent of the Falange, such a description of the nobility of the ruling classes shows the family air of his road map with Path of Saint Josemaróa Escrivá de Balaguer.
