Left‐Wing Populist Movements

Abstract

Populism is a type of anti‐establishment discourse enunciated in the name of “the People” and utilized by various social actors such as politicians, journalists, academics, artists, and ordinary citizens. In the field of social movement studies, the phenomenon is best understood and analyzed as a collective action frame. Populist framing proceeds from feelings of injustice and indignation and offers a certain problematization and assigned meaning to a situation. In its diagnostic component, it attributes injustice to a corrupt system of power that only serves the interests of a minority of elite stakeholders. In its prognostic component, it suggests a repertoire and an action plan in order to enforce checks on oligarchic intrusion and to ultimately restore a just balance between popular aspirations and governance. In its motivational component, populist framing issues an urgent call for mass mobilization as a political and moral duty of the People – from whom the state is supposed to derive its authority – but whose sovereignty has been robbed by a self‐perpetuating and unresponsive elite.