While a vast theoretical literature argues that we live in populist times, the success of populism beyond its electoral dimension is rarely investigated empirically. This paper analyses the development of populism in five Western European countries (Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) from the 1970s to the 2010s. First, it measures whether political parties articulate populist discourses more and more often in their election manifestos. Second, the paper tests whether the presence of populism has increased over time in newspaper articles. The results show that populism is not a new phenomenon and that there is no linear increase over the decades. Moreover, while election manifestos are significantly more populist in the 2010s than in previous decades, populism in newspaper articles remains rather stable at a low level, suggesting that the media curb rather than foster populist discourses.

Berger (2010) 123 Historical aberration. Gildea (2002) 60−68 Responsibility of foreign occupation, Nazi tyranny. Gildea (2002) 75 French and Germans as victims of Nazi rule. Jackson (2014) 141 Collaboration as occupation parenthesis. Judt (1992) 96 Aberration, interlude, activity of minority. Michel (2011) 182 Block out responsibility. Rousso (1990) 41 Myth of "liberation" from occupation. Secondary narrative: heroization/cancellation Art (2011) 372 Exculpatory, myth of resistance against occupation. Art (2011) 376 Contrition after affirmation of Front National. Bell (2013) 156 Forgetfulness. Berger (2010) 123 Communist and Gaullist resistance. Berger (2010) 131 Positively accentuated national history. Gildea (2002) 75 Cancellation of Algerian war. Golsan (2006) 78−79 Gaullist myth of resistance. Jackson (2014) 141 Gaullist and communist myth of fight against traitors. Michel (2011) 170 Myth of Vichy regime's isolation, everyone was resisting. Rousso (1990) 101 Resistance mythology against occupation.

The paper focusses on the online political discourse of the Five Star Movement (5SM) and its strategic adaptability. The main goal of the analysis is to establish how salient several topics are over time in order to test the party’s ideological flexibility. Indeed, 5SM’s post-ideological approach and its emphasis on direct-democratic tools might constitute a winning formula for other populist parties willing to exploit the crisis of the mainstream parties and representation. The paper, through an automated content analysis, tracks the longitudinal evolution of the salience of the topics addressed by 5SM on the party’s blog. This allows us to establish which topics are at the core of the party’s message and which, on the other hand, have been raised strategically over time. Results show that 5SM’s discourse is very flexible and adaptable: it devotes a large space to the importance of direct democracy while flexibly addressing different topics depending on the political and social context.

This chapter discusses three aspects of the relationship between populist discourses and the media: the process of mediatization of politics, the impact of media populism on democratic quality, and the link between new media and populism. The aim is to summarize theories and results present in the relevant literature, while advancing a more sophisticated framework for analysis based on a clear definition of populism as an ideology articulated discursively. In particular, the chapter proposes to consider the media sphere and the political realm as an integrated system for the production of user-friendly political news, thus overcoming the fictitious opposition between media and political-logic. Populist discourses should therefore be considered as the result of a constant flow of direct, indirect, and mixed interactions between political and media actors.