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Political cults

Further information: Political extremism

LaRouche Movement members in Stockholm protesting against the Treaty of Lisbon

A political cult is a cult with a primary interest in political action and ideology. Groups that some have described as "political cults", mostly advocating far-left or far-right agendas, have received some attention from journalists and scholars. In their 2000 book On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left, Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth discuss about a dozen organizations in the United States and Great Britain that they characterize as cults. In a separate article, Tourish says that in his usage:

The word cult is not a term of abuse, as this paper tries to explain. It is nothing more than a shorthand expression for a particular set of practices that have been observed in a variety of dysfunctional organisations.

In 1990, Lucy Patrick commented:

Although we live in a democracy, cult behavior manifests itself in our unwillingness to question the judgment of our leaders, our tendency to devalue outsiders and to avoid dissent. We can overcome cult behavior, he says, by recognizing that we have dependency needs that are inappropriate for mature people, by increasing anti-authoritarian education, and by encouraging personal autonomy and the free exchange of ideas.

List of political cults

• In the late 1980s and early 1990s, followers of Ayn Rand and her Objectivism philosophy were characterized as a cult by Murray Rothbard and Michael Shermer. The core group around Rand was called the "Collective". Subsequent groups which disseminated Rand's ideas were the Nathaniel Branden Institute, followed by the Ayn Rand Institute and The Atlas Society.

• The LaRouche movement is a political network that originated in the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of candidates ran in US state primaries on the 'LaRouche platform', while Lyndon LaRouche repeatedly campaigned for presidential nomination. The network was involved in currying favor with officials of numerous intelligence, enforcement and military agencies in a "very concerted effort to influence the government". In 2023, Tommy Craggs of The New Republic wrote that LaRouche used "abusive 'ego-stripping' sessions to firm up his followers' ideological commitments" and that "Larouchies are still pushing their fascist politics". David Harry Bennett wrote in his book, "Lyndon La Rouche was a charismatic leader for a coterie of the devoted [who] built a small political cult of personality, attracting and retaining a following [...] who could respond to his peculiar vision of his own historic importance and accept his self-inflating tales of murderous enemies". Shilpa Jindia of Mother Jones wrote "as LaRouche's fascist views became apparent, his paranoia and controlling behavior drove the organization into cult territory". In 2019 The New York Times called it a "cultlike political organization" and LaRouche a "cult figure".

• New Acropolis or Nouvelle Acropole (NA) was founded in 1957 in Argentina, but by the 1980s "had built up an argent youth following in more than thirty countries". It has been described by scholars as an ultra-conservative, neo-fascist, and white supremacist paramilitary group. According to Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, "the structure, organization and symbolism of the Nouvelle Acropole is clearly indebted to fascist models". In the 1990s, the European Parliament and the French National Assembly labelled NA as a "sectarian fascist group of paramilitary origin", and in 2014 MIVILUDES said NA was under close surveillance "due to its doctrinal content, its organization [..] and the fact that it spreads among its most assiduous members an undemocratic and totalitarian message ". In 1997, a school teacher in Madrid was teaching racist theories to his 16-year-old students and ordered them to attend a New Acropolis conference, causing outcry from parents and the school board.

• The Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) was a Trotskyist group in 1980s UK, described as displaying cult-like characteristics. Bob Pitt, a former member of WRP, concedes that it had a "cult-like character" though arguing that rather than being typical of the far left, this feature actually made WRP atypical and "led to its being treated as a pariah within the revolutionary left itself." Sean Matgamna wrote that WRP was "a pseudo-Marxist, gobbledegook-spouting cross between the Moonies, the Scientologists and the Jones Cult".

• Former followers of the alt-right Groypers movement have accused leader Nick Fuentes of leading it like a cult, describing him as abusing and demanding absolute loyalty from his followers. Fuentes admitted to describing his own movement as a cult, and said "I don't think cults are necessarily a bad thing ... cults are really the only place where there's loyalty".

• Other political cults have included the National Labor Federation (NATLFED), the Democratic Workers Party, and Lutte Ouvrière.

• Some religious groups that have been involved in politics include the Cultural Office of Cluny, the Divine Light Mission, Tradition Family Property (TFP), Longo Maï, the Supermen Club, and the Association for Promotion of the Industrial Arts (Solazaref).

• The Unification movement (UM) founded in 1954 in South Korea has been labelled a cult by many, especially for its charismatic leader, manipulative recruitment and socialization, and high-pressure fund raising. UM branched out into politics, starting with its desire for Korean reunification. Newspaper articles have abounded, pointing out UM's "antidemocratic motives", comparisons to Nazi Youth organization, and calling it the US's greatest threat.
  UM has spent millions of dollars per year on advocacy, legal and political activities and lobbying, and "developing financial and professional relationships with prominent conservative academics, religious leaders, journalists and political leaders". The efforts have been described by UM officials as "part of a much broader, and sometimes more subtle, program to influence American politics and culture."
  Using UM's anti-communist and conservative agenda, it worked its way into Japan until the 2020s. With investigations into the assassination of Shinzo Abe disclosing ties between UM and numerous Japanese politicians, plus pressure from mounting lawsuits, Japan had asked the courts to revoke their tax-exempt status and shut it down. The National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales has said they have received 34,000 complaints between 1987 and 2022 from those claiming financial losses due to UM "brainwashing believers into handing over huge quantities of money".
  As of 2024, UM has aligned itself with the far-right politics in the United States, has received multiple video endorsements from Donald Trump, and has paid Mike Pence for speaking engagements.