Muddy Waters

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 1, Muddy Waters: Populism and Democratic Defence explores the complex political context in which opposition to populist parties in Europe takes place. It discusses contested conceptions of populism, charts the rise of populist parties in Europe, discusses debates about populism and democracy and links between populism and ‘democratic backsliding’. The chapter argues that opponents to populist parties swim in ‘muddy waters’, especially compared with extremist opponents typically taking less ambiguous positions on the value of democracy. Opposing populist parties in the name of democratic defence is complicated by the attractiveness of appeals to popular sovereignty, the electoral success of populist parties in democratic elections, and by the fact that populist parties may mobilize genuine popular grievances. Opponents are therefore likely to enter a political minefield requiring constant reflection on taken-for-granted assumptions about the nature of democracy and to confront rival claims about who has the democratic high ground.