Populism Studies: The Case for Theoretical and Comparative Reconstruction

Abstract

Studies of populism have shifted from substantive to discursive/performative and institutional perspectives in recent decades. This shift resolved some long-standing problems but insulated the analysis of populism from theoretical and methodological debates in the social sciences. Theoretical restrictions have gone hand in hand with geographical neglect: The near-exclusive focus on the United States, Europe, and Latin America reinforces the blind spots of these existing approaches. An integration of overlooked regions holds the potential for theoretical reconstruction, even though such comparative broadening could as well simply reproduce the persistent impasses. Moreover, post-2016 developments have induced a return to substantive issues, throwing into sharp relief what populism studies have been missing during the past decades. The main challenge today is synthesizing socioeconomic analyses with institutionalist and discourse-theoretical advances without falling into eclecticism. Breaking away from the entrenched regional orientations to embrace a more global-historical methodology could help such an endeavor. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 47 is July 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

The Populist Backlash Against Globalization: A Meta-Analysis of the Causal Evidence

“…We used Scopus and Web of Science to extract the references cited and found 553 further studies in Scopus and 62 in Web of Science. We reviewed the bibliographies of recently published reviews on populism (Berman 2021; Guriev and Papaioannou 2022; Hunger and Paxton 2022; Mansfield et al 2021; Rodrik 2021; Scheiring 2021; Tuğal 2021; Walter 2021) and identified 6 further studies for screening. Finally, we identified 4 studies through a Google Scholar citation search.…”

“…Most studies analyze Western Europe and North America, where most authors are located. Eastern Europe outside the EU, Latin America (except Brazil), Asia, and Africa are neglected, as Tuğal (2021) and Mansfield et al (2021) noted.…”

Theorizing and mapping media ownership networks in authoritarian-populist contexts: a comparative analysis of Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, and Turkey

“…By bringing the issue of media ownership to the center of populism discussions, this paper diverges from approaches that largely consider populism in terms of its discursive and cultural pillars. While we agree that populism can be played out as a "performance," "style," or "rhetoric" (Laclau, 2005;Moffitt and Tormey, 2014;Ostiguy et al, 2020) that articulates the opposition between "the people" and "the elite" (Mudde, 2004), we also emphasize the substantive, political economic, and institutional aspects of populist politics (Krämer, 2014;Tuğal, 2021;Waisbord, 2018). Our focus is on the authoritarian right-wing populist politics that seeks "social homogeneity through coercion" (Morelock, 2018: xiii, see also Hall et al, 1978).…”

When Is Populism Good for Liberal Democracy?

“…My study is not the last word on the relationship between populist rhetoric and democracy. Rather, I formulate a new theoretical framework that is more consistent with current scholarship than existing frameworks and can serve as a basis for future elaboration via case studies of populism in different national contexts (see Tuğal 2021). To this end, I examine interviews to make a maximally plausible argument about the relationship between populist rhetoric and political cognition.…”