The Nucleus of Populism: In Search of the Lowest Common Denominator

Abstract

There are different area-based bodies of literature on populism, which generally define the concept in slightly different ways. As a result, the term ‘populism’ has been attached to a wide variety of political actors, from Perot in the US to Berlusconi in Italy, and from Perón in Argentina to Le Pen in France. Is it an unfortunate coincidence that the same word has been used for completely different parties and politicians, or is it possible to discern the lowest common denominator that these actors share? By means of a comparison of six cases, based on a most-different systems design, I demonstrate that populists in different times and places have four characteristics in common: (1) they emphasize the central position of the people; (2) they criticize the elite; (3) they perceive the people as a homogeneous entity; and (4) they proclaim a serious crisis. These four characteristics constitute the core elements of populism.

How Populists Wage Opposition: Parliamentary Opposition Behaviour and Populism in Netherlands

“…Populism has a chameleonic quality (Taggart, 2000), which means that it can be combined with both left-wing and right-wing ideas. While populism often is regarded as a binary characteristic that parties can either have or lack (Rooduijn, 2014), we think of populism in terms of degrees (Jagers and Walgrave, 2007;Rooduijn and Pauwels, 2011). Populism is not necessarily limited to new challenger parties; old parties might also partly adopt some level of populist rhetoric.…”

The Populist Political Communication Style in Action: Podemos’s Issues and Functions on Twitter During the 2016 Spanish General Election

“…What issues and functions, linked to its political agenda, does Podemos produce and circulate through Twitter? There is agreement among academics on populist movements in their identification of a populist communication style (Jagers and Walgrave, 2007;Rooduijn, 2014;Aalberg et al, 2017;Block and Negrine, 2017). This style has four components.…”

Populist Discourse on Political Representation: A Case Study of Anti-Establishment Organizations in Lithuania

“…So far, many studies have researched populist parties' features (De Lange and Art, 2011) and common characteristics of populist actors (Pauwels, 2011, Rooduijn andPauwels, 2011;Rooduijn, 2013). Because the implications of populist politics for the party democracy model should be researched more thoroughly, this article analyses how political representation is perceived and presented by activists by studying populist ideas and discourse.…”