Populism

Question 1

How can we define populism

Answer 1

1. Giving people what they want
2. as strategy
3. as ideology
4. as a style
5. as a discourses

Question 2

Populism as strategy

Answer 2

1. Personalised leadership
2. Goal of obtaining power
3. rests on mass support
4. unmediated leadership: very top-down, leader using speeches/ referenda, direct contact with people. Basis for personalised leadership to mobilise the masses.
5. No systemic ideology/ program: goal is to mobilse voters and to gain politcal power, not convey a certain ideology
6. more of a Latin-America based theory.
   Theory argues that populist there try to mobilise masses, and cetain groups are left out. Populism is not only about gaining power (European context), also certain assumed inauthenticity, here that its only strategic

Question 3

Populism as a style

Answer 3

1. Performative: how they act, rather than action
2. Language important, rather than content
3. Way they present/ dress/ act
4. tensioin between high and low culture: populist present low culture ( culture of people vs elite culture)

Question 4

Populistm as ideology

Answer 4

1. Thin ideology
2. Consistent and core ideas: pure people vs corrupt elite
3. Populism is a continuum, you can be more or less populist
4. needs another ideology to give content
5. not elitism/ pluralism, based on the people: everyday people seen as homogeneous

Question 5

Populism as discourse

Answer 5

1. There is no democracy without populism
2. Without populism politics is pue administrational work, populism induces the pople
3. populism in a positive sense
4. Through populism you construct people and politics
5. the people do not exit. They have to be constructed through the logic of equivalance
6. logic of difference: people see different issues
7. logic of equivalence: populists show to bring these differences together. People vs establishment (logica van gelijkwaardigheid)
8. Links different demands + ideas into one block.

Question 6

All approaches in comparison

Answer 6

1. All similar in people-elite distinction
2. Strategy approach too power-oriented and too focused on inauthenticity. Sometimes populist really think this way
3. Style approach: performance = important, but cannot really isolate this to populism
4. Discourse: difficult to operationalise, but interesting notion of the people

Question 7

What is populism and what not? (demoticism vs populism)

Answer 7

Need to make distinction between populism/ democrticism

Demoticism: closeness to people, using common language, being part of the popele.
Rhetoric can be demotic, but does not have to be populist.

Question 8

Characteristics of populist voters?

Answer 8

1. Link to ideology that is attached to populist party
2. Lower levels of trust, satisfaction with democracy + efficacy

Question 9

Populism succesful/or unsuccesful?

Answer 9

1. Unsuccesful. 10/15 % of vote and many parties are mislabled as populist
2. Succesful, a lot of populist parties all over the spectrum that have been ver succesful in some countries, and maybe succesful in more altent ways due it shapes the diversity of parties

Question 10

For what reason is populism there?

Answer 10

1. Frustration with mainstream politics
2. Changing notions of hierarchy + authority
3. Democratisation of knowledge
4. Hopeful alternative, represents the people in alternative way
5. form of political mobilisation