Abstract
Abstract The idea that populism is a ‘thin ideology’—unlike other full-bodied ‘thick’ ideologies like conservatism or socialism—has come close to being an orthodoxy among populism scholars. This paper challenges that view and argues that it is at best an open question whether populism meets the criteria of a thick ideology, which should be whether it offers a comprehensive program of political change and whether it has staying power. This argument will be made by reference to three countries, the United States, Sweden and India, all of which have recently seen a populist turn. The paper first summarizes debates about populism, ideology and social change. Then it provides a brief account of populism in the three country cases and argues that their populist turns may be a coherent and lasting new departure. The paper concludes with reflections about the broader ramifications of populism as ‘thick’ versus ‘thin’.
Highlights
The idea that populism is a ‘thin ideology’ has become commonly accepted among scholars; it has become something of an orthodoxy.[1]
This paper challenges that view and argues that it is at best an open question whether populism meets the criteria of a thick ideology, which should be whether it offers a comprehensive program of political change and whether it has staying power
Mudde and others make the left/ right distinction, but they argue that populism is a ‘thin’ ideology because, apart from the Manichean opposition between ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’, populism has little by way of its own political program to offer, and so it is reliant on or piggybacks onto other more substantive political ideologies
Summary
The idea that populism is a ‘thin ideology’ has become commonly accepted among scholars; it has become something of an orthodoxy.[1].
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