Populism, Anti-Populism

and Democracy

© Press Association

Populism has lately emerged as a key concept in global politics. But what generally, I will trace out some provisional
answers to central questions about
exactly is populism? And is it inherently problematic and dangerous?
populism troubling researchers and citizens
Yannis Stavrakakis looks at the relationship between populism and alike.
crisis, and asks whether populism really is anti-democratic.
What is populism?

P
opulism is clearly on the political academic accounts often reproduce certain Populism was first used to designate
agenda. The Italian and Brexit stereotypes that obscure what is at stake an alliance between farmers and
referendums and, in a more in populist politics internationally. How workers suffering from very aggressive
pronounced way, the victory of can we make sense of the ambiguous modernisation in the US during the 1890s.
Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential trajectory of the concept and the often The American People’s Party was founded
election, as well as that of Victor Orban’s antithetical variety of populist phenomena? to protect these impoverished groups
Fidesz in the recent Hungarian elections, The Populism Specialist Group of the PSA and to further egalitarian demands that
constitute the most recent examples in a has already organised numerous events were not adequately represented by the
long chain that have elevated ‘populism’ in which many of these ambiguities have Democratic and Republican parties. By
to the status of one of the most hotly been highlighted and debated. Drawing on most accounts a progressive force, the
debated topics in contemporary politics. these discussions and on the contemporary American Populists were short-lived, but
Nevertheless, both public debates and orientations of populism research more left a lasting legacy in American politics,

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 elite, the one per cent.
Other criteria for populism have been
proposed as well: charismatic leadership,
distrust of institutions and so on. But
these aspects rarely seem to be integral
to populism. Echoing the stereotypical
approach of Cold War American academics
like Hofstadter, an emerging liberal
mainstream in populism studies (Müller
2016, Mudde and Kaltwasser 2017)
also highlights the role of moralisation.
Moralisation refers to the supposed
tendency of populism to simplify political
antagonism: to idealise its own camp,
which is described in terms of purity and
homogeneity, and to vilify the enemy camp,
that of the establishment, which is then
© Press Association denounced as corrupt and evil. But such
idealisation of in and out groups is hardly
still dominate public debate and academic confined to populist movements. Nearly all
readings. Thus, with ‘populism’ starting out passionate attachments, from sexuality to
as a predominantly progressive index in the religion and from cultural taste to football,
American context, it is now the norm to create an ‘us’ and a ‘them’. How could power
describe Donald Trump as the ‘populist’ par relations be exempt from that? Especially
excellence. since identity and difference, love and hate,
play such a significant role in all political
How can populism be defined identification? The idea that a moralising
today? dimension – the creation of a good and an
During the last 20 years, populism research evil – is somehow the preserve of populists
has increasingly stressed the structural does not stand up. It is difficult, in other
characteristics of populism, focusing on words, to substantiate an exclusive link
the fundamental structures of populist from exaggerated or pathological types
discourses, movements, parties and leaders; of moralisation to populism. (For a more
highlighting not so much their ideological detailed elaboration of this argument, see
content, but their form. This shift permits a Stavrakakis & Jäger 2017.)
more alert conceptualisation of populism;
it also facilitates the development of Problematic and dangerous?
clear criteria for identifying populism and Populism is usually discussed in very
preparing the ground for Roosevelt’s New avoids the crippling Eurocentrism that negative terms. This is largely for two
Deal. often reduces populism exclusively to reasons. First, because of a widespread
This history explains why initial social- the radical right. Hence, a more nuanced identification of populism with the extreme
scientific accounts of American populism were understanding of the different ideological or far right. This uncritical identification
predominantly positive, and why ‘populism’ associations (both left-wing and right-wing) is rather misplaced, leading to serious
in the US often retains a positive meaning. It of populist political platforms developed misconceptions and misunderstandings,
was only during the 1950s – mainly through globally starts to emerge. and creating conceptual confusion. Because
the critique of Richard Hofstadter – that a The main criteria put forward today for the it is usually a euphemism to label the far
pejorative understanding of populism started identification of populism are two-fold: (1) right ‘populist’, it is also something that they
to dominate. Nowadays, populism is presented People-centrism: a central reference to ‘the are often happy to accept since it ‘absolves’
as backward-looking, irrational, irresponsible, people’, which becomes the central point of them from far worse designations and
even as paranoid and anti-Semitic. Although reference; (2) Anti-elitism: the representation makes them appear more ‘likeable’. Neo-
an avalanche of meticulous scholarship has of the social and political space as divided Nazis often seek to be described as ‘populist’
since discredited Hofstadter’s arguments and cross-cut by ‘us’, ‘the people’, the as it is less politically damaging.
(something that he was himself eventually led excluded, the non-privileged, the 99 per cent, In most of these cases, a peripheral
to acknowledge), many of these stereotypes against ‘them’, ‘the establishment’, the ruling reference to ‘the people’ and ‘popular

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 sovereignty’ is referred back to a nationalist to social grievances and political demands. excluded from politics to emerge, to win
or racist signification. ‘The people’ is reduced When this happens, these demands tend to concessions and influence decision-making.
to ‘the nation’ or to ‘race’, and the central create links with each other on the basis of To the extent that this political subject
antagonism marking social and political shared opposition to the common enemy becomes the vehicle of egalitarian demands,
space is conceived of as running along that is seen as frustrating their satisfaction: of demands that can be associated with
nationalist lines. But this can be misleading. the government, the elite. This is how a a radical democratic perspective, with
Going back to the Russian and American populist chain is produced, which then can the widening of popular participation in
populism(s) of the late 19th century – and be shaped as a populist project, contesting decision-making, then, in such cases, one
also Latin American experience – we see the current order and putting forward an could say that populism becomes a way
that probably most populist movements alternative political orientation (Laclau in which a radical democratic agenda can
have belonged to the left and exhibited a 2005). This process is evident in the political effectively influence a given public sphere.
rather egalitarian, ‘inclusionary’ profile. In trajectory of Syriza and Podemos in the Of course, there are also other types of
these, ‘the people’ remains open enough to crisis-ridden European south. In this sense, populism, such as the European populist
accommodate and include all the excluded, populism research needs to rigorously take extreme right, which point to an anti-
impoverished and non-privileged sectors into account the role played by ‘crisis’ in democratic direction. We must also be
of a population, including immigrants. The facilitating populist mobilisations and the continuously aware of the ambivalence
central antagonism in these populisms ways in which such crises are narrated by of populist experiences – an ambivalence
is between the excluded ‘people’ and the populist discourses, often in a dramatised that does not solely rely and depend on
establishment, the elite, the one per cent. and fictional way (Moffitt 2017). the profile, the orientation and trajectory
Debates around populism can greatly Populist discourses are never the only of a particular populist project examined in
benefit from avoiding Eurocentrism and ones that create narratives of crisis. Populist isolation. Usually, populism is also influenced
from embracing a genealogical and truly interpretations are always antagonised by by broader trends. Very often, populism(s)
comparative perspective acknowledging mainstream discourses that articulate their of this egalitarian radical democratic type
the different variants of populism and own crisis narratives, pointing to particular have to compete against anti-populist, elitist
distinguishing what is predominantly causes and solutions. In this sense, and given or even authoritarian projects. In Europe, at
populist from what is not. Political forces that very few political forces self-identify as present we can see both radical right and
such as Podemos (Spain), Syriza (Greece) ‘populist’, there is a huge need to also study left populist projects emerging that criss-
and La France Insoumise (France) – even anti-populism and incorporate this inquiry cross national borders. How they develop
Labour under Jeremy Corbyn – were born into the study of populism proper: very will depend on various factors, including
out of the recent European sovereign debt often ‘populism’, especially when the term is local political cultures. Nevertheless,
and financial crisis, and the continuing used in a pejorative sense, is just something populism can become a vehicle pushing
neoliberal management of the economy. one attributes to a political opponent to forward a radical democratic agenda.
These movements all exhibit left wing discredit and marginalise them. Is there And when this is not met with outward
populist characteristics and re-establish really populism without anti-populism? suspicion and violent hostility by established
the importance of an egalitarian populist forces, it may influence institutional life in a
current within contemporary Europe itself, Democratic or anti-democratic? progressive way.
thus effecting a paradigm shift of sorts. For some analysts, populism clearly
If this is the case, then one also has to constitutes an enemy of democracy. It is a Selected reading
accept that populism in its ‘inclusionary’ Laclau, Ernesto (2005) On Populist Reason, London: Verso.
dangerous threat to the established other.
Moffitt, Benjamin (2017) The Global Rise of Populism:
form can be a ‘corrective’ to a democracy More nuanced accounts highlight the Performance, Political Style, and Representation, Stanford:
(Mudde and Kaltwasser 2017) that has lost ambivalence of the relationship between Stanford University Press.
Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Rovira, Cristobal (2017) Pop-
its egalitarian, participatory component and populism and democracy or even celebrate ulism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University
does not serve ‘popular’ but rather ‘market populist politics as a force for democratic Press.
Müller, Jan-Werner (2016) What is Populism?, Philadelphia:
sovereignty’. This is how ‘the people’ as a renewal. Obviously, a lot depends on one’s University of Pennsylvania Press.
potent political force starts to emerge on understanding of democracy – whether Stavrakakis, Yannis & Jäger, Anton (2017) ‘Accomplishments
the left as well as the right. and Limitations of the “New” Mainstream in Contemporary
liberal, participatory or radical – and the
Populism Studies’, European Journal of Social Theory, ad-
given populism in question (left-wing or vance online publication, DOI: 10.1177/1368431017723337
A rise in populism? right-wing, inclusionary or exclusionary).
The emergence of a populist discourse Populism typically implies the creation, Yannis Stavrakakis is Professor at the
and the production of ‘the people’ as a emergence and construction of a particular Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where
potent political subject, is not a static political and collective subject that will be he directs the POPULISMUS Observatory:
but a predominantly dynamic process. It able to push forward social demands which www.populismus.gr He is also co-convener
presupposes a certain crisis, the inability of have been previously excluded. Populism of the Populism Specialist Group of the
an established system to respond effectively allows sectors that have been suffering or PSA.

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