Advanced Diploma in Studies of Far-Right Politics and the Undermining of Democracy

This Diploma arises in response to the rise of far-right political alternatives in Latin America and other regions of the world, alternatives that champion reactionary ideology, the elimination of the adversary transformed into an existential enemy, and the dismantling of the common good. Under the guise of what various authors describe as a neoliberalized, and therefore hyper-individualistic and anti-political, common sense of our time, reactionary sectors, labeled as “libertarians,” “patriots,” and similar, now wield significant political and cultural influence globally. 

The Advanced Diploma offers training that allows one to understand these phenomena at different levels and from different methodologies, organized in two parts: 

- the first, oriented towards a theoretical training in which categories and concepts of political theory and science will be addressed that are fundamental to understanding in their proper dimension the current process of rightward shift and reactionism turned into common sense that is seen in so many countries of the world. 

The second part is practical and focuses on understanding how these concepts and categories operate in relation to the current rise of the far right. For example, how these discourses circulate and are structured on social media, how they can be measured and classified using technological tools and advanced political analysis, and how trends are constructed in digital conversations (now central spaces for public discussion) based on fake news, hoaxes, and manipulations from far-right sectors. 

It is proposed that the participants of the Higher Diploma be able to visualize and develop tools to detect these discourses and combat them from their everyday virtual and conventional spaces, within the framework of a perspective of defending democratic coexistence and ideological pluralism.

Why does a young Argentinian, living in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, find a liberating horizon in Milei's anti-state and extremist discourse? What makes a Ryder, a truly precarious worker with a precarious working life, feel that he is his own boss and therefore "free"? 

To find answers to these questions, we must consider two key issues: currently, reactionary and ultracapitalist discourses connect organically with dominant common sense, circulating naturally without much explanation. Because of this, the far right is better able to represent and embody the prevailing discontent than sectors ranging from the left to centrist progressives. 

Speaking out against the State today becomes, firstly, something of “common sense” because it is supposedly true that the state sphere would take away our freedom, and secondly, it is anti-system since there would be a “progressive” hegemony that through a “global agenda” imposes on us what we should think, prefer and do. 

On social media, this type of discourse circulates with great ease, connecting with millions who consume and share it simply because they believe it to be true. The communicative paradigm that, according to Zuboff (2020), social media imposes by segmenting users (people) into niches based on tastes, fears, and prejudices, reinforces this type of dynamic and framing. 

In today's digital conversation spaces, the effects of truth are more important than the truth itself: the way something is said is more effective than what it actually is. The way social networks operate facilitates this process of ideological confirmation, since "news" circulates among niche groups that instantly project it to millions of accounts. 

In this context, democracy is threatened on two fronts: 

• First, because the currently dominant neoliberal rationality (Brown, 2016) empties it of its specifically political content by deepening individualism and economizing everything. Thus, citizens, in the context of a life reduced to competing in the market and managing their lives as if they were businesses, do not see public spaces as sources of freedom, and politics, understood as participating in the common good and organizing collectively, loses importance. Without politicized citizenship in the sense of participating in the affairs of the res publica, democracy is reduced to a mere procedure for electing ruling elites. 
• And second, because without truth and a public discussion based on facts, democratic coexistence within the political community (society) is impossible. Respect for the rules of the democratic game and those minimum agreements that guarantee coexistence amidst the inherent differences of society are replaced.   

The threats to democracy today are numerous, and the rise of the far right and reactionary movements are a sign of this. Insofar as we live in societies shaped by a digital communication paradigm, traditional social movements and academic activism are no longer sufficient.

In today's world, limiting ourselves to this (which certainly remains valid) is tantamount to letting democracy slip away. Therefore, we believe we must resort to other methods and refocus our academic efforts. 

We propose this Diploma course from a perspective of defending democracy, aimed at training people to participate in their spaces of civic discussion and combat the discourses and frameworks of the reactionary far right, based on understanding its foundations and how this political logic operates in public discussion.      

It will be a Diploma program in which classes and training activities will not only be taught by traditional academics but also by experts in Big Data, electoral consultants and experts in digital political communication. 

General objective:

To offer rigorous and up-to-date training on the specific characteristics of the contemporary phenomenon of the emergence of far-right political sectors and to contribute to the defense of democracy in these times of such serious threats. 

Specific objectives:

1. Explain how the coordinates of political-ideological conflict function today in terms of left and right 

2. To characterize the far right, on the conceptual and factual levels, as a specific political logic that involves ruptures and deepenings of what has historically been liberal-conservatism. 

3. Analyzing neoliberalism as a dominant rationality that was historically built from the margins of dominant consensuses, and as a strategy of economic elites to reconfigure and socially unanchor capitalism and thus decouple the economy from democracy. 

4. To explain, using digital conversation data and artificial intelligence tools, how social networks, from the communicative paradigm they establish, intervene by creating trends and circulating fake news and hoaxes about democracy and politics in general. 

5. To characterize the case studies as phenomena of the far-right political logic of Trump, Milei and Bukele from a practical perspective focused on generating militancy against them.

The Higher Diploma in Studies of Far-Right Politics and the Undermining of Democracy is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students; teachers at all levels; activists and members of trade unions, social movements and political parties; public officials; members and managers of non-governmental organizations and professionals interested in the subject.

The program consists of 5 modules of 3 weekly classes each, taught consecutively and linked together.

Total workload of 128 hours.

 The modules that comprise the Higher Diploma are: