Populism as a layered system: ideological, social identity, and psychodynamic perspectives

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper analyses populism as a layered system with three levels: the political/institutional, the social/interactional, and the psychological/intrapsychic. Each level is theorized using a specific analytic concept, At the political/institutional level the analytic concept is ideology, and populism is theorized as a ‘thin ideology’ that divides society into the pure people and the corrupt elite. At the social/interactional level the analytic concept is social identity and populism is theorized as a form of identity politics in which devalued social groups develop a compensatory positive identity based on populist ideology. At the psychological/intrapsychic level the analytic concept is psychic structure, in which individuals use a paranoid/schizoid psychic structure that allows them to ward off the negative effects associated with their devalued social identity. Each analytic concept has the same deep structure: a binary polar opposition in which one pole is positive and good and the other pole is negative and bad.