This is a translation of an essay by Alain Caillé originally published in French in La Revue du MAUSS. It addresses the topical issue of the global rise of the far right and examines its relation to traditional totalitarianism and democracy. It discovers paradoxes in the recent political history: the movement is a neoliberal reaction to neoliberalism. Instead of empowering progressive political appeal, economic conditions have driven people into the embrace of ‘tyrannical buffoons’ who promise the intensification of neoliberal reform. (...) This leads to an ‘inverted totalitarianism’ or ‘parcellitarianism’. (shrink)