Axel Kaiser | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | Chilean |
Occupation | Author [1] |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Universidad Diego Portales (LL.B.) University of Heidelberg (LL.M. in Investments, Trade and Arbitration) University of Heidelberg (M.A. in American studies) University of Heidelberg (Ph.D. in American studies) |
Thesis | The American Philosophical Foundations of the Chilean Free Market Revolution. (2014) |
Doctoral advisor | Katja Patzel-Mattern, Martin Thunert y Detlef Junker |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Political sciences Philosophy |
School or tradition | Austrian School |
Institutions | Universidad del Desarrollo University of the Andes Adolfo Ibáñez University Stanford University |
Axel Kaiser (born 4 July 1981) is a Chilean writer,lawyer,and political scientist known for his work on liberalism and free-market economics. Kaiser is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and has published articles in Forbes and other publications. [2] He is also the author of several books,including The Tyranny of Equality and The Populist Deception. A 2017 poll by La Segunda ranked him among the most admired public intellectuals in Chile. [3]
Kaiser was born into a third-generation German-Chilean family,who emigrated to Chile in April 1939. [4] He is the son of Hans Christian Kaiser Wagner and Rosmarie Barents Haensgen,and brother of Vanessa Kaiser,scholar at the Universidad Autónoma de Chile and director of the libertarian think tank Centro de Estudios Libertarios,and Johannes Kaiser,a right-wing YouTuber [5] and current member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile.
He lived his childhood and adolescence in Villarrica with his brothers. [6] [7]
While living in the Chilean capital,he completed a Bachelor of Laws at Universidad Diego Portales. He qualified as a lawyer on August 7,2007. [8]
In 2009,Kaiser won a Fulbright Program scholarship [9] and travelled to Germany to pursue two master's degrees (Master of Arts in International Law,mention Investments,Trade and Arbitration and another in American Studies) [10] [11] [12] and a PhD in American Studies in Heidelberg University,with the thesis The American Philosophical Foundations of the Chilean Free Market Revolution. [13] [11]
Back in Chile,he was a full professor at Universidad del Desarrollo and the Universidad de los Andes,where he taught a course on Latin American Politics.
Writing in El Desconcierto in 2018 pundit Rodrigo Karmy Bolton posits that Fernando Atria is Kaiser's main "intellectual enemy". [14] Karmy Bolton criticizes Kaiser's for misportraying the left as "violent,statist and populist" and equating state intervention with violence. [14] For Karmy Bolton Kaiser's view is that "either we accept neoliberalism or [we] are stupid" and portrays Kaiser as a "worshipper of the market" (Spanish :"idólatra del mercado"). [14]
According to another pundit,Rodrigo Rettig,Kaiser has violated the principal premise of the social sciences —"from the particular case you can't obtain general premises"—when referring to political violence experienced by his brother in 2018. Kaiser wrote in reference to it that in Chile "grave injuries have,in practice,no punishment" while omitting the 2,500,000 CLP fine that was given to each of the two aggressors,and then stated that "in Chile,deliquency has been normalized". [15]
Kaiser has further been questioned by actress Susana Hidalgo for copyright infringement by using one of her images of the 2019–2020 Chilean protests in the promotional posters of his talks in Mexico in February 2020. [16]
Kaiser's and Gloria Álvarez's book El engaño del populismo has been lambasted by Alfredo Joignant in a 2016 televised debate with Kaiser. Joignant called the book "confuse","harmful" and "very bad". [17] [18] More specifically,Joignant criticizes it for having use of the "category of populism" that is "out of control" and that it mischaracterizes populism as a political project in its own right. [17] Joignant concludes the book "does not withstand an undergraduate academic jury". [14] [17] Kaiser answered to Joignant's criticism by asking if he had actually read the book with Joignant replying "I read it in diagonal" because "the argument is too simplistic". [17]
Cannabis in Chile is illegal for all production and public consumption,though private at-home consumption,grow and selling is allowed for medical use. It is widely consumed,with the highest per-capita use in Latin America. In 2014 Chile began clinical trials on medical marijuana,and in 2015 a decriminalization bill successfully passed the lower house of the Chilean Congress.
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Fernando Atria Lemaitre is a Chilean intellectual,lawyer,university teacher and politician. Atria has been an avid participant of the intellectual debates about reforms in the Chilean education system and the Constitution of Chile.
Rodrigo Ernesto Rojas Vade is a Chilean former political activist who was elected in 2021 as a member of the Chilean Constitutional Convention. He became an icon of the 2019 Chilean protests falsely claiming to have leukaemia and alleging to be a victim of the healthcare system and using a discourse against high medical costs in Chile. Later it was revealed that he actually had syphilis.
Vanessa Olimpia Kaiser Barents-Von Hohenhagen is a Chilean columnist and politician serving as a councilwoman of Las Condes. She is the host of the Esfera Pública YouTube Channel and a political commentator with strong republican,democratic and libertarian tendencies.
The Fundación para el Progreso is a Chilean libertarian think tank. Founded in 2012,its chief financial officer is Nicolás Ibáñez Scott,and its executive director is political scientist Axel Kaiser. The FPP has received support from Quiñenco Group and the Luksic Foundation.
Johannes Maximilian Kaiser Barents-von Hohenhagen is a German-Chilean YouTuber and politician. He was a member of JoséAntonio Kast's Republican Party,from which he resigned in 2021 after several of his controversial comments went viral. In 2022 he was reintegrated to the party to later leave it again in 2024.
Nicolás Cirilo Ibáñez Scott is a Chilean economist and businessman commonly known for having been the owner of the supermarket Líder,a shareholder of Papa John’s,and for founding and financing the libertarian think tank Fundación para el Progreso (FPP) and its icon Axel Kaiser. He is also a columnist for newspapers such as El Mercurio and El Líbero.
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