Abstract
Populism in the 21st century became prominent in scholarly circles following Brexit and the 2016 electoral victory of Donald Trump. As democracy and globalization enthusiasts least anticipated these two monumental events in modern history, much emphasis came to be placed on the nature of populism and what conditions led to its manifestation in contemporary times. Working within this background, this study aims to review the ideational, political strategy and discursive approaches to the populism phenomenon and unpack the relative utility of each approach. I offer a thoughtful perspective that while the ideational approach’s “thin-centered” strand has the tendency to blur the boundaries of populism and lead scholars to accept “anything” as populism; it nevertheless enables us to comprehensively capture populism usage in multiple contexts. Further, I advance the notion that the 2020 electoral defeat of Donald Trump should not be misconstrued as the end or weakening of right-wing populism; the present state of American politics makes it ripe for populism resurgence.
Highlights
The political successes of Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, and Boris Johnson rekindled much scholarly and journalistic attention to populism
I offer a thoughtful perspective in this article that while the ideational approach’s “thincentered” strand has the tendency to blur the boundaries of populism and lead scholars to accept “anything” as populism; it enables us to comprehensively capture populism usage in multiple contexts
The main assertion of the paper is that while the ideational approach’s “thin-centered” strand has the tendency to blur the boundaries of populism and lead scholars to accept anything as populism, it enables us to capture populism usage in multiple contexts
Summary
The political successes of Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, and Boris Johnson rekindled much scholarly and journalistic attention to populism. Brubaker (2017) for example prioritized the “claim to act in the name of the people” as an essential element of populism The people in this sense may be politically and economically distinct from elites and culturally different from immigrant and refugee populations According to Mouzelis (1985), political populism involves the process of drawing into the political space groups hitherto excluded or marginalized by employing anti-elite and pro-people ideology This definition differentiates populism from simple revolutionary movements (China in 1949 and Cuba in 1953). This article reviews the different approaches to the study of populism, assesses the relative utility of each approach and unpacks why writing off populism in the wake of Joe Biden’s election could be a significant error. The second section will unpack why I believe populism is an important topic within the field in the contexts of democratic degeneration and political participation, and further zoom into discussions about the possibility of populism resurgence in post-Biden America
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