Hoorcollege 10: Populism Flashcards
1
Q
How can we define populism?
A
- Giving the people what they want
- As a strategy
- As an ideology
- As a style
- As a discourse
2
Q
Populism as a strategy
A
- Personalised leadership
- Goal of obtaining power
- Rests on mass support
- Unmediated leadership: very top-down, leader using speeches/referenda, direct contact with the people. Basis for personalised leadership to mobilise the masses.
- No systemic ideology or program: goal is to mobilise voters and to gain political power, not convey a certain ideology.
- More of a Latin America based theory. Theory argues that populists in Latin America try to mobilise masses and that certain groups are left out. Populism is not only about gaining power (in European context), also certain assumed inauthenticity here, that it’s only strategic.
3
Q
Populism as a style
A
- Performative: how they act instead of what they do.
- The language they use, rather than the content.
- Way they present/dress/act: In some countries they’ll use dialect (informal language, using regional dialect) or crude language in context where it’s inappropriate → visceral reaction. Gives an emotional bond. Informal/regional language in parliament → connecting to the people. Informal or formal dressing.
- Tensions between high and low culture: populists present low culture (every day culture, culture of the people) vs elite culture → we don’t see us in these institutions.
4
Q
Populism as an ideology
A
- Thin ideology
- Consistent and core ideas: pure people vs corrupt elite, manichean/antagonistic (black and white) view, based on the general will of the people. All need to be present.
- Populism is a continuum, you can be more or less populist.
- Needs another ideology to give it content
- Not elitism or pluralism, it is based on the people: the everyday people/silent majority and are seen as homogenous.
5
Q
Populism as discourse
A
- There is no democracy without populism
- Without populism politics is pure administrational work, populism induces the people.
- Populism in a positive sense.
- Through populism you construct the people and politics.
- The people don’t exist. They have to be constructed through the logic of equivalence
- Logic of difference: people see different issues
- Logic of equivalence: populists show to bringing these differences together that a lot of issues are important, this creates the people vs the establishment
- Links different demands and ideas into one block and is a process of articulation which creates politics
6
Q
All approaches in comparison
A
- All similar in people-elite distinction
- Strategy approach too power oriented and too focused on inauthenticity. Sometimes populists really think in this way.
- Style approach: performance is important, but cannot really isolate this to populism.
- Discourse: Difficult to operationalise, but interesting notion of the people.
Ideational approach is used.
7
Q
Demoticism vs populism
A
Need to make a distinction between populism and demoticism. Demoticism = closeness to the people; using common language; being part of the people. Rhetoric can be demotic, but doesn’t have to be populist.
8
Q
Characteristics of populist voters
A
- Link to the ideology that is attached to the populist party
- Lower levels of trust, satisfaction with democracy and efficacy.
9
Q
Is populism successful or unsuccessful?
A
- Unsuccessful, 10/15% of the vote and many parties are mislabled as populist.
- Successful, a lot of populist parties all over the spectrum that have been very succesful in some countries and may be successful in more latent ways because it shapes the diversity of parties.
10
Q
For what reasons is populism there?
A
- Frustration with mainstream politics
- Changing notions of hierarchy and authority
- Democratisation of knowledge
- Hopeful alternative, represents the people in an alternative way
- Form of political mobilisation
