Democracies and the Populist Challenge

by Yves Meny, Yves Surel

Overview

Populism has become a catchword for mass media and politicians faced with the challenge of protest parties or movements. It has often been equated with the radical right. This unique volume demonstrates that populism is an ambiguous but constitutive component of democratic systems torn between ideology (government of the people, by the people, for the people) and performance.

Author Biography: Yves MŽny is President of the European University Institute.

Author Biography: Yves Surel is Research Associate at the Centre d'Žtude de la vie politique franaise (CEVIPOF).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230567092
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	12/06/2001
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	602 KB

About the Author

HANS-GOERG BETZ Associate Professor of Political Science, York University, Toronto
MARGARET CANOVAN Professor of Political Thought, University of Keele
HERBERT P. KITSCHELT Professor of Political Science, Duke University
PETER MAIR Professor of Comparative Politics, Leiden University
CAS MUDDE Lecturer, Department of Politics, University of Edinburgh
WOLFGANG C. MÜLLER Professor of Political Science, University of Vienna
YANNIS PAPADOPOULOS
PAUL TAGGART Lecturer in Politics and Jean Monnet Lecturer in Contemporary European Studies, University of Sussex
MARCO TARCHI Associate Professor of Political Science and Political Communication, University of Florence
ALAN WARE Professor of Politics, University of Oxford

Table of Contents

	List of Tables and Figure	viii
	Foreword	ix
	Notes on the Contributors	x
1	The Constitutive Ambiguity of Populism	1
	Populism: the pathology of democracy?	3
	Representative politics and populism	7
	Voice or exit? The populist mobilisation	11
Part I	Making Sense of Populism
2	Taking Politics to the People: Populism as the Ideology of Democracy	25
	Introduction	25
	People vs politics	27
	Ideology and democracy	29
	The insoluble paradox of democracy	38
	Conclusion	42
3	Populism, the Democratic Question, and Contemporary Governance	45
	Introduction	45
	Populism and democracy: an uneasy partnership	45
	Populism and the transformations in policy styles	53
	Conclusion: the populist potential in modern democracies	57
4	Populism and the Pathology of Representative Politics	62
	Introduction	62
	The study of populism	63
	The features of populism	66
	Populism as a reaction to representative politics	71
	Populism and its impact on representative politics	75
	Conclusion	79
5	Populist Democracy vs Party Democracy	81
	Introduction	81
	The erosion of party democracy	84
	Two senses of populism	88
	Populist democracy in practice: the 'paradox' of New Labour in Britain	92
Part II	Identifying Country Variations
6	The United States: Populism as Political Strategy	101
	Introduction	101
	How populism merges with other political values in the United States	104
	Populism as a political strategy	112
	Conclusion	119
7	Populism Italian Style	120
	A phenomenon with deep roots	120
	The dissatisfied society	123
	The Lega Nord: populism as a social movement	126
	The myth of civil society from Berlusconi to Di Pietro	131
	Conclusion	135
8	Populism in the French Party System	139
	Introduction	139
	The conditions for the (re-)emergence of populism in France	140
	The rhetorical and ideological mobilisation of populism	146
	Populist strategies?	149
9	Evil or the 'Engine of Democracy'? Populism and Party Competition in Austria	155
	Introduction	155
	The context: cartel politics	157
	Mass media and media logic	158
	Issue competition	160
	Issue competition and elections	161
	Objective changes: new problems	162
	Populism, electoral success, and inter-party relations	170
	Conclusion: populism and liberal democracy	173
Part III	Comparing National Cases
10	Popular Dissatisfaction with Democracy: Populism and Party Systems	179
	Introduction	179
	Sources of dissatisfaction with democratic institutions	182
	The New Radical Right and anti-statist populist parties	184
	The aetiology of anti-statist populist success	187
	The limits of anti-statist populist politics	193
	Conclusion	196
11	Conditions Favoring the Success and Failure of Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in Contemporary Democracies	197
	Introduction	197
	The populist appeal	198
	Mobilising ressentiments	199
	Issue identification and political effectiveness	205
	Conclusion	212
12	In the Name of the Peasantry, the Proletariat, and the People: Populisms in Eastern Europe	214
	Introduction	214
	The concept of populism	214
	Agrarian populism in Eastern Europe	218
	Economic populism in Eastern Europe	222
	Political populism in Eastern Europe	223
	Conclusion	229
	Bibliography	233
	Index	250