What is it about?
This chapter examines how populism changes the meaning and exercise of power internationally. It focuses on three questions: who has the authority to decide, how institutions and procedures negotiate and constrain power, and whose status counts. Leaders claiming to speak directly for “the people” can reshape what governments present as legitimate, necessary and possible.
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Why is it important?
Rules and institutions can remain in place while the basis of their authority changes. Understanding this helps us see how international relationships are being reworked. The chapter also explains why disruption does not automatically produce a lasting new order: sustained change depends on material resources, geopolitical opportunities and institutional constraints.
Perspectives
I am interested in how the political communities we imagine shape the worlds we help create. Claims about who constitutes “the people” carry implications for who may exercise authority and whose interests deserve recognition at home and abroad. This raises questions about whose voices count and how power is held accountable. My aim is to explain both the appeal of these claims and the conditions under which they can reshape international politics. This chapter brings those questions into the study of international relationships, exploring how populist understandings of belonging and power can reshape the wider world.
Dr Spyros Sofos
Simon Fraser University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: From Populism to Populist World-Making, July 2026, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.4324/9781003665830-3.
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