Wojciech Engelking

During his stay at the IWM, Wojciech Engelking will be working on the philosophical foundations of the latest incarnation of American populism. This political current is not new to study: indeed, during Trump’s first term there was a substantial increase in the number of explanatory models developed. These models generally converged on two fundamental premises: first, the portrayal of the rise of populism as an aberration in the broader trajectory of American political development; and second, the assumption that populism lacks a coherent ideological foundation, functioning instead as an ephemeral oppositional force that defines itself in reaction to progressive political agendas. However, Trump’s second electoral victory, along with two interrelated developments, necessitates a critical reassessment of this analytical paradigm. These developments—the selection of J.D. Vance as vice president and the endorsement of Trump and Vance by Silicon Valley’s technological elites—compel a reconsideration of the prevailing assumption that Trumpian populism is devoid of ideological substance. In Engelking’s research, he aims to root this movement in several intellectual traditions: first, in the antiliberal esoteric philosophy associated with Leo Strauss and his concept of natural right; second, in the post-liberalism of Adrian Vermeule and Patrick J. Deneen; and third, in the apocalyptic and epochal thinking characteristic of Oswald Spengler’s thought.