Publication

New publication: „The Reactionary International”, by Steven Forti

27.08.2026 Justin Nogarede

New publication by Steven Forti situates techno-right figures in a broader and global network of far-right actors that increasingly cooperate and share ideas, money and personnel, and influence governments and public policy.

Deutschland, Berlin, Demonstration vor dem Kanzleramt, Campact: Palantir Stoppen! — Creator: picture alliance / Metodi Popow | M. Popow

In this new publication, Professor Steven Forti situates techno-right figures like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel in a broader and global network of far-right actors, including political parties, think tanks, and foundations, that increasingly cooperate and share ideas, money and personnel, and influence governments and public policy. The growing involvement of Silicon Valley authoritarians adds enormous financial resources and a political project that is hostile to liberal democracy. The paper also shows how these networks appropriate concepts such as freedom and sovereignty, by giving them authoritarian meanings.

For democrats, the message is urgent: the far right has understood the importance of international organisation and capturing public institutions. Democrats will need to react, by building stronger transnational networks, and preventing the authoritarian tech right from capturing public power.

This paper is part of the Authoritarian Stack project, which identified a network of tech founders and founders, across the United States, who are building a post-democratic America, via a fusion of venture capital, technology, and ideology.

About the author

Steven Forti is Professor of Contemporary History at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). Currently he is the local coordinator of the Horizon Europe project ‘Analysis of and Responses to Extremist Narratives’ (ARENAS: arenasproject.eu/). His research focuses on the study of fascism, populism, and the far right in the 20th and 21st centuries from a comparative and transnational perspective. His latest books are Democracias en extinción. El espectro de las autocracies electorales (Democracies in Extinction: The Specter of Electoral Autocracies, Akal, 2024) and Extrema derecha 2.0 Qué es y cómo combatirla (Far-Right 2.0: What It Is and How to Combat It, Siglo XXI, 2021), which has been translated into Italian (Castelvecchi, 2025) and Portuguese (FGV, 2026).

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What is The Authoritarian Stack?