The Origins of Technopopulism

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the origins of the technopopulist political logic. It does so by identifying the origins and principal contours of the ideological political logic which preceded it. It then explores the relative decline of the ideological logic and the rise of technopopulism. The technopopulist logic has superimposed itself upon the ideological logic, leading to a complex interaction between the two. The theme of the chanpter is the formation and decline of organizing interests and the complex relationship between societal change and evolutions in national political party systems. The overarching narrative is of the separation of state from society (referred to process of disintermediation) and the connection of this to technopopulism. The rise of the technopopulist political logic is associated with a number of macro-historical processes, such as secularization, cognitive mobilization, and the decline of organized interests. However, the relationship between these processes and the rise of technopopulism is shaped by nationally specific experiences. The empirical focus of the chapter is on British, French, and Italian politics, but the argument refers also to broader changes that held across national political systems in Western Europe since 1945.