The (Trump) challenge of personalist-populist institutional disruption at the core of the system

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the differentiated process of adjustment of institutionalist international relations (IR) to the Trump personalist-populist intrusion into the contest over institutional design. The nature of this response (or, in some cases, non-response) on the part of rationalist institutionalism has important implications for the reputation of literature. While unlike some components of realist or realist-influenced literature, no attempt can be detected to rationalize the Trump insurgency, the lack of any original anticipation on the part of the entire body of institutionalist IR exposes another major gap central to the argument in this book. This neglect is especially glaring given the high degree of US-centrism embedded in this literature.