Het populistisch appel: voorbij de populaire communicatiestijl en ordinaire democratiekritiek

Abstract

Populism is grown into a booming concept. In this article we attempt to specify the concept more detailed as well as to investigate the connection between populism and liberal democracy. First, populism is defmed as an unique mobilisation strategy, which uses a populist ideology and a typical political style. In this sense populism refers to a thin-centred ideology composed by an appeal to the monolithic people and a antagonistic conception of the established power stmetures and the dominant ideas and values. Second, we examine whether populism is a pathology or a challenge to the constitutional and representative democracy. Following Margaret Canovan, I shall suggest that populism is inherently coimected to the tensions at the heart of democracy, but at the same time I argue that populism is more than an ordinary critique about the functioning of the representative democracy. The liberal representative democracy is by itself at stake.