The Meaning of 'Populism'

What is it about?

This essay presents a novel approach to specifying the meaning of the concept of populism, on the political position it occupies, and on the nature of populism. Employing analytic techniques of concept clarification and recent analytic ideology critique, it develops populism as a political kind in three steps. First, it descriptively specifies the stereotype of populist platforms as identified in extant research. It thereby identifies the peculiar political position populism occupies in representative democracies as neither inclusionary nor fascist. Second, it specifies on this basis the particular normative stance towards liberal democracy that unifies populism’s political position and explains how populist politics can be compelling for democratic citizens. The normative core (populist ideology) turns out to require no more than two general principles of legitimizing political authority by elections: majoritarianism and 'the people' as a construct (as opposed to referring to the population). Surprisingly, it does not need a separate anti-pluralist or exclusionary commitment. The model shows that it is entailed by the two general principles. Third, this normative model allows a response to whether populism (properly specified) can be democracy-enhancing. The article defends the negative answer on the basis of the normative core alone. It establishes the latter as much with reference to a minimal (purely electoral) as with reference to a normatively ambitious (liberal) conception of democracy. The reconstruction of the normative core of populist ideology enables a novel argument to show that populism is incompatible with the continued democratic legitimation of political authority even in the normatively most austere conception of ‘electoral democracy’, not just with ‘liberal democracy’. The same core also produces an extremely direct argument showing that populists cannot fulfil their promise of ‘taking back control’ over political decision-making.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The model of populism developed in this article builds on most extant research in the field and identifies for the first time the basic normative structure of populist ideology.

Perspectives