About

Mabel Berezin is a Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences in Sociology and the Director of the Institute for European Studies at Cornell University. She is a comparative sociologist whose work explores challenges to democratic cohesion and solidarity in Europe and the United States. Berezin is the author of 'Making of the Fascist Self: The Political Culture of Interwar Italy,' which received the J. David Greenstone Prize from the American Political Science Association and was named an Outstanding Academic Book of 1997 by Choice. She also authored 'Illiberal Politics in Neoliberal Times: Culture, Society and Populism in New Europe' and co-edited 'Europe without Borders: Remapping Territory, Citizenship, and Identity in a Transnational Age.' Her research focuses on the social and cultural appeal of fringe parties in France and Italy as a response to Europeanization, the role of emotions in macrosociological systems such as politics and economics, and the comparative historical study of institution building, citizenship, and social capital in early 20th-century United States and Europe. Berezin lectures widely in the United States and Europe, has held various visiting positions at prominent European and American institutions, and has been interviewed by multiple international media outlets. Her recent scholarly work addresses the resurgence of nationalism and populism, and she has contributed to discussions on the impact of fascism, populism, and democratic challenges in contemporary politics.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Social Science
• Sociology
• Law
• Philosophy
• Epistemology
• Media studies
• Aesthetics
• Gender studies

Selected publications

• The Security Imperative and Right Nationalist Politics in Contemporary Europe

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2025-05-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The end of thick security and the normalization of the European nationalist right: a historical Analysis

  Journal of Contemporary European Studies · 2025-11-24

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Vision and Imagination: The Analytic Strength of the Insider/Outsider

  Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · 2024-04-27

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Does the “Fascism Debate” Matter for Understanding 2024 American Politics?

  The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science · 2023-07-01 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  In 2020, historians and public intellectuals began to ask whether fascism had come to America, with many analysts arguing in the affirmative. I argue here that fascism as a category has an “epistemic plasticity” that attenuates its analytic utility when it is used outside of historical context. Fascism as an analytic device in the American context, therefore, obscures dangerous tendencies in American politics and culture. Where European political culture is characterized by secular and religious solidarity rooted in national state institutions, American political culture lacks collectivism and solidarity and is susceptible to nativism, a distinctly American impulse that is unmoored from institutional arrangements. In the 2024 American election cycle, analysts should focus on factors that threaten democratic institutions and strategies that strengthen democracy. Comparisons that apply imperfectly to the American situation will not save democracy.

  PublisherDOI

• Political culture

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2023

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Social Science
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  This comprehensive and authoritative Encyclopedia, featuring entries written by academic experts in the field, explores the diverse topics within the discipline of political sociology. By looking at both macro- and micro-components, questions relating to nation-states, political institutions and their development, and the sources of social and political change such as social movements and other forms of contentious politics, are raised and critically analysed.

  PublisherDOI

• Identity, Narratives, and Nationalism

  Routledge eBooks · 2021 · 6 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Social Science

  Identity is not constitutive of illiberalism. This chapter argues that some form of collective identity is necessary to produce the level of social cohesion and community that makes a democratic and liberal form of political organization possible. Identity is constitutive of belonging on multiple levels. Laws and institutions define identity categories. Nation states are the modern repository of political identities – the political form where emotion and law, culture, and contract intersect. Identity becomes the basis of illiberal politics when the cultural dimension of national belonging merges with the contractual dimensions of national organization. The fusion of culture and contract more typically occurs on a continuum. There is a threshold at which pragmatic nationalism, at one end of the continuum, slides into the identitarianism and nativism of the other end. This chapter first takes up the concept of identity and its meaning; second, it explores the relation between identity and illiberalism; and third, it dissects benign and less benign nationalism as the major contemporary political identity, including a discussion of identitarianism and nativism as toxic forms of nationalism.

  PublisherDOI

• Culture in Politics and Politics in Culture

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2020 · 20 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Social Science
  • Sociology

  In the 1990s, the idea that culture had a role to play in political sociology was relatively novel. Identifying sociologists who fit this emerging interdisciplinary subfield posed a challenge. Today, it is difficult to imagine a sociologist, or even a political scientist, who would argue against the importance of culture to politics. It has become de rigueur to acknowledge culture in political analysis. If anything, the field of politics and culture borders on oversubscription. Methodological issues that dominated early syntheses (Berezin 1994, 1997b) remain salient. These include epistemological discussions of culture as an explanatory factor in social analysis (e.g., Berezin 2014a; Wagner-Pacifici 2017) distinctions between qualitative and quantitative methodology (Goertz and Mahoney 2012).

  PublisherDOI

• The Absence of the Ordinary in 2020 Presidential Politics: What Politicians Communicate

  Sociological Forum · 2020-06-12 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  As the 2020 American presidential election approaches, it is worth thinking about the current electoral moment in terms of lessons from the recent and not‐so‐recent past. This article begins with an unlikely analysis. Ordinary life captures the attention of citizens who vote but do not spend their lives 24/7 on social media or cable news or public radio. Ordinary people do not spend their time discussing social policy over dinner. Ordinary people go to dinner—not dinner parties. The ordinary people are the path to victory in any political contest. This article explores the “ordinary” and its relation to politics.

  PublisherDOI

• Fascism and Populism: Are They Useful Categories for Comparative Sociological Analysis?

  Annual Review of Sociology · 2019-05-01 · 46 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Political developments in the United States and Europe have generated a resurgence in the use of the terms fascism and populism across multiple media. Fascism is a historically specific term that Benito Mussolini coined in Italy to define his regime. Over time, political analysts erased the historical specificity of fascism and deployed it as an analytic category. In contrast, populism is an analytic category that, depending on context, includes varying aggregates of popular preferences that often lack a coherent and unifying ideology. This review draws upon interdisciplinary scholarship and empirical cases to revisit the terms fascism and populism, focusing on institutionalized politics. Contemporary fascist and populist politics are increasingly global. This review argues that comparative political and historical sociologists need to develop an analytically cogent approach to researching this encroaching political phenomenon. The review suggests a research agenda that treats fascism and populism as more than conceptual categories.

  PublisherDOI

• On the Construction Sites of History: Where Did Donald Trump Come From?

  2018-11-12 · 20 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Kurgan-Van Hentenryk

  Federal Employment Agency

  9 shared

• Alexis Bérélowitch

  9 shared

• Anita Chan

  9 shared

• Siegfried Mielke

  9 shared

• Robert Bates

  9 shared

• Maruyama Makoto

  9 shared

• Ewa Bérard

  9 shared

• Catherine Marsh

  Hôpital Lariboisière

  9 shared

Awards & honors

• J. Dvid Greenstone Prize by the American Political Science A…
• Choice named and 'Outstanding Academic Book of 1997'