Population Waves Research Articles

Populist votes, orientations, and the COVID‐19 pandemic in Italy: A latent growth study

AbstractObjectiveWe aimed to predict the trend of populist orientations and votes in Italy before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic.MethodUsing the Consequences of COVID‐19 (COCO) data set (quota sample of the Italian adult population), we conducted a 3.5‐year, seven‐wave longitudinal study, with one wave before the pandemic (June 2019) and six waves during the pandemic (April and October 2020, April and October 2021, and April and October 2022).ResultsTwo latent growth analyses have shown that in the period we considered the degree of populism of the party chosen for the vote decreased linearly; this change was positively associated with the anxiety of the participants. Conversely, populist orientations remained stable.ConclusionThe COVID‐19 pandemic plausibly contributed to a superficial and temporary halt to the long populist wave that hit Italy in the last decades, as demonstrated by the decrease in populist vote choices concomitant with a persistent substrate of populist orientations.

The effects of global populism: assessing the populist impact on international affairs

Abstract With the global rise to power of populist leaders over the past decade, research on populism, including its international implications, has flourished. However, we still lack a nuanced understanding of the international effects of this new populist wave. The special section that this article introduces seeks to bridge this gap by systematically examining three types of international effects of populism. One group of contributions addresses the impact of populism on the processes of foreign policy-making in countries governed by populists (politics). Another group focuses on effects in terms of foreign policy agenda and its substantive outcomes (policies). A third group of contributions studies the impact of populism on states' stances towards international institutions (international polity). This introduction proposes a theoretical framework that takes into account the existent diversity among populist governments, specifically addressing how the more or less authoritarian character of populism explains variations in international outcomes across politics, policies and polities. A better understanding of these varied characters and effects can contribute new insights to lively debates about the potential challenges posed by populism and populists in the contemporary international order, and the prospects for mitigation.

Populist Dichotomy in Homogenous Societies: Internal and External Others in South Korean Politics

This study aims to analyze populism in the scope of South Korean politics. It addresses the contexts in which political actors adopt dichotomous populist discourses and the implications of populist mentality on the social fabric of country. Populism can be defined in three different dimensions as an exclusionary, divisive and marginalizing ideology, discourse politics and a mobilization strategy. It is typically built on others that take on various forms. In this framework, the recent reflections of populism in the case of South Korea are discussed through the dichotomies and constructed perceptions of the other. It seeks to shed light on how political actors in South Korea which is assumed to have a homogenous social structure, point out the internal and external others that constitute the essence of populist politics. While populism’s understanding of the other is relatively uniform in different contexts, in South Korea the reflections of populism are differentiated and concretely understood through a range of internal and external others. South Korea, which is considered as one of the successful democracies in East Asia, is also affected by populist wave. The reflections of populism in South Korea are not severe and can generally be expressed as soft populism. Moreover, it is predominantly effective on discourse politics and is not observed in the form of concrete policies.

Confronting or incorporating middle-class nation-building? Right-wing responses in the pan-Canadian context

ABSTRACT Canada is often praised for successfully integrating ethnically diverse immigrants into its multicultural nation, so successful indeed that the country has been considered an exception to the twenty-first-century right-wing populist wave. The recent ascent of political mobilization associated with right-wing populist repertoires across Canada, however, has exposed the need to revisit the exceptionalism thesis. With this goal in mind, our article examines the contemporary right-wing responses to the Liberal Party of Canada’s (LPC) post-2015 discourses and policies on immigration and multiculturalism. Building on existing scholarship, we first characterize the LPC’s approach as a nation-building project with strong middle-class partialities that emphasize high skills and human capital. We then explore how right-wing parties oppose or embrace this ‘middle-class nation-building’. Qualitatively analyzing the platforms of center-right parties and those further to the right at the federal and provincial levels (Alberta and Québec), we observe three prevalent response types: those that follow a cultural logic to prioritize identity and values, an economic logic to underline merit and contribution, or a combination of the two. Besides modulating the Canadian exceptionalism thesis, our findings complicate the assumed dichotomy between market-based and cultural forms of nationalism, as political actors can merge them in various permutations.

Populist influences on design: Mediation of a new designer profile in Turkish advertising discourse

Aiming to illustrate the populist influences on design mediation, this paper explores the characteristics of a new and legitimate designer profile, persona, or myth recently constructed within the Turkish advertising discourse. To achieve this, three video advertisements that mediate designers and are influenced by the ‘domestic and national’ discourse—a representative of the national populist wave that recently dominated Turkish politics—were analysed. The analysis reveals how designers and their creative labour are portrayed to align with broader political climates, reflecting certain notions of national populism. These new, culturally and politically legitimate designers are portrayed not only as Turkish nationals and patriots but also as the ‘children of these lands’, living, thinking, and feeling like the average and ‘real’ people these political discourses claim to represent. In parallel, the analysis highlights the significant role of populism’s marked opposition towards foreigners and local foreigners while constructing and mediating these designer profiles.

Populist Nationalism versus Globalization: Psychological Dynamics of the Rising Political Wave

Globalization is a phenomenon with economic, social, and political consequences because of the spread of the market economy in the whole world. This phenomenon causes major consequences in the life of societies. Societies united economically with the globalization process, but seem to be socio-psychologically separated. These socio-psychological separations need to be addressed in the context of globalization psychology, nationalism psychology, and populism psychology. The study endeavor to understand the motivation of the increasing populist wave by presenting the psychology of the globalization process and the psychology of populist/nationalist movements that emerged as anti-globalization in this process. This study deals with globalization psychology in the context of individual, large group (national) and, small group psychology and tries to evaluate the results of globalization in the context of nationalism psychology and populism psychology.

Sovereignty Intrusion: Populism and Attitudes toward the International Monetary Fund

Abstract The global populist backlash is considered threatening to the multilateral order, but its impact on individual attitudes toward international organizations, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is understudied. We bridge insights from research on the IMF and populism to develop a theoretical framework centered on three propositions. We argue that populist individuals should be more prone to blame the IMF for economic problems than non-populists, but that this effect is highly conditional on sovereignty intrusion, escalating when an IMF program exists and as the program becomes more onerous. In contrast, IMF scapegoating by populist politicians should be largely ineffective. Analyzing survey data from across the European Union and an original survey experiment in Greece, we find support for each contention. The paper advances understanding of the partisan politics of the IMF and shows that the implications of the populist wave for international order are more complex than often assumed.

Tekushchaya volna populizma kak faktor krizisa identichnosti v Evrope

The wave of development since approximately 2012 was the manifestation of contemporary identity crisis in Europe. The low efficiency of EU crisis management had led the sense of insecurity which has already pervaded among communities combined with the sense of distrust toward political system impact the existing systematic identity. The populist wave in the past decade was the very consequence of this identity crisis.

Trump divide among American conservative professors.

There has been an outpouring of research on right-wing populist conservatism since the advent of the Trump presidency and right-wing movements in Europe. Yet, little research has been devoted to divisions among conservatives themselves, especially among conservative academics. Although Trump has maintained remarkable unity within the Republican Party for electoral reasons, he has fostered sharp divisions among conservative intellectuals and academicians. This article compares 102 politically conservative professors who are Trumpists and 80 conservative professors who are anti-Trumpists. All 182 function as public intellectuals who advocate their views in print and digital media. Drawing on recent research in the sociology of intellectuals and particularly Pierre Bourdieu's analytical field perspective, this article proposes a fielding political identities and practices framework to show how these two groups of professors (Trumpists and anti-Trumpists) differ in where they teach, their intellectual orientations, their scholarly productivity, where they network with think tanks, scholarly professional associations, and government agencies, and their stances on key issues surrounding the Trump presidency. The academic Trumpists embrace the right-wing populist wave mobilized by Trump and the conservative academic critics resist this move. This polarization of views between these two groups of conservative professors is enduring and rooted in two distinct social networks that connect positions in the academic field to affiliations with think tanks, government agencies, and professional associations in the field of power that reinforce their respective political identities. This research contributes to political sociology, the sociology of intellectuals, and the sociology of conservative politics in American higher education.

Discontent in the ‘peripheries’: an investigation of the rise of populism in Italy

ABSTRACT The concept of periphery, going beyond the mere interpretation in geographical terms, incorporates a ‘relational’ character that is implicitly characterized by connotations of power and inequality. Peripheries can be actively created as an outcome of shifts in economic and political decision-making at various scales. The recent populist wave has brought to the fore the issue of peripheries as ‘left behind’ places, striking back in the ballot boxes. In this paper, we investigate the role of different dimensions of peripherality and their changing geographies on populist voting patterns by analysing the growth of non-traditional parties between the general elections held in Italy in 2013 and 2018. First, we consider a spatial dimension of peripherality, that is, the geography of access to services of general interest. Second, we explore some factors that might be associated with a condition of peripherality, meant as marginality. We find that the growth of discontent in Italy has different explanatory factors in core and peripheral areas. Irrespective of geographical peripherality, where, however, populist votes are more concentrated, our findings reveal that a condition of marginality may feed a sense of revenge connected to the feeling of ‘not mattering’ also in urban areas.

Campaigns and regimes: party characteristics, political transformations and the outcomes of populist governments

The growing success of populist parties in western democracies has generated lively academic debate surrounding the changes this populist wave has created in various political systems. These parties have demonstrated their ability to shift from protest to governing parties, consequently shifting experts’ attention toward the effects of populism in power on democratic institutions. In light of examples in South America and Easter Europe, scholarly debate has centered on concerns that populist governments will deform democracy and democratic institutions, limit institutions and reduce both checks and balances and pluralism. Here we argue that in the context of a consolidated western democracy, populist governments identify themselves with government ‘as usual’, and that the populist ascent produces a greater impact on the political system as a vehicle for protest than it does on institutions once in power. We analyze the three examples of populism represented by the 5 Star Movement, Podemos and La République En March in order to examine the transformations produced by their successes in their relative political systems and their various effects on institutions once in government.

Destroying Democracy for the People: The Economic, Social, and Political Consequences of Populist Rule, 1990 to 2017

ABSTRACT The recent populist wave has raised questions about the implications of populism for democracy. Some scholars express optimism that populism may be a source of democratic revitalization, bringing about sweeping changes in accordance with the majority will. More often, populism is viewed as a threat to liberal democracy, combining calls for radical change with disdain for core democratic institutions and norms. We consider the possibility that these outcomes may not be mutually exclusive and develop a conceptual typology for understanding the consequences of populist rule. We then use cross-national panel fixed-effects models to analyze the effects of populist leadership between 1990 and 2017. We first examine whether populists have economic and social effects in line with their core aspirations. Left-wing populists are quite effective at implementing their agenda: they reduce income inequality, regulate markets, and incorporate marginalized groups. Right-wing populists are also fairly impactful: for instance, they raise tariffs, cut taxes, and restrict the rights of women and gay people. However, populists of all stripes are associated with the rapid and severe erosion of liberal democratic institutions. Populists, we conclude, often destroy democracy in the name of the people.

Ethical critique in political discourse

In recent years, we have witnessed a drastic wave of totalitarian regimes, as noted by Levitsky and Ziblatt (2018) in the book entitled How Democracies Die. The authors provide historical examples of democratic rupture in the last one hundred years: from Hitler and Mussolini in the 1930s to the current populist wave of right-wing extremism in Europe, preceded by the military dictatorships of Latin America in the1970s. The dizzying growth of Brazil’s new right wing, particularly the democratic far right, which is spearheaded by current president Jair Bolsonaro as the “honest politician” who stands in opposition to the corrupt political class. Regarding the present context of abuse of power, denial, and fake news, I decided to reflect upon the issue of ethics, more specifically of ethical critique in political discourse.

Populism and the migrant crisis in Europe - political implications

Dealing with the migrant crisis in Europe has shown that the regulations, principles, and values of the European Union are overshadowed by the individual interests of its member states. On the one hand, EU member states have faced internal political challenges caused by populism, while on the other hand, there has been a lack of rapid, coordinated, and synchronised measures to solve the problems at hand. The mass influx of migrants from Asia and Africa to Europe indicates demographic shifts on a historic scale and possible global consequences, but EU member states have been observing the issue and are still observing it primarily from their own national point of view. A comparative analysis of electoral support for populist parties and movements in Europe since the beginning of the migrant crisis has led to an indicative conclusion that there is a direct correlation between increasing support for populists and the large-scale migrant crisis. The significant influx of migrants has contributed not decisively, but to a significant extent to the creation of a great populist wave that has engulfed almost all of Europe.

Riding the Populist Wave: Europe’s Mainstream Right in Crisis. Edited by Tim Bale and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 300p. $99.99 cloth, $34.99 paper. - Authoritarianism and the Evolution of West European Electoral Politics. Erik R. Tillman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. 272p. $100.00 cloth.

Riding the Populist Wave: Europe’s Mainstream Right in Crisis. Edited by Tim Bale and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 300p. 34.99 paper. - Authoritarianism and the Evolution of West European Electoral Politics. Erik R. Tillman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. 272p. $100.00 cloth. - Volume 20 Issue 3

Radical, Nativist, Authoritarian—Or All of These? Assessing Recent Cases of Right-Wing Populism in Latin America

In the light of a series of right-wing populist successes, some observers concluded that there is a kind of populist contagion going on and that the global wave of radical right populism (RRP) has finally reached Latin America. Yet, a premature categorization based on outward similarities eventually leads to omitting important differences. The aim of this article is a typological assessment of four recent cases of right-wing populism in Latin America—Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil), José António Kast (Chile), Guido Manini Ríos (Uruguay), and Javier Milei (Argentina)—to clarify their correspondence with Cas Mudde’s concept of RRP. The questions to be addressed are the following: Are these four leaders and their parties radically right? Are they right-wing in cultural terms (nativist and authoritarian)? Are they populist? And do they have sufficient features in common to speak of a right-wing populist wave?

Lessons for Left-Wing Populism from the 2010s Austerity Wave in Europe

Lessons for Left-Wing Populism from the 2010s Austerity Wave in Europe

The Populist Dimension of Brexit

In June 2016 the victory of the Leave campaign in the European referendum of June 2016 was completely unexpected. The referendum had been organized to please the Eurosceptic members of the Conservative Party, fearful of the rise of UKIP, fears which were confirmed one year after the referendum was announced, because this party obtained the best results at the European Parliament election. The referendum put an end to David Cameron’s political career. This paper contends that Brexit was made possible because of a number of factors: the populist wave in the world which allowed charismatic politicians with effective communication skills to reach power, the emphasis put on immigration as well as the effective spin and use made of the media by both Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage. But above all, Brexit was the means chosen by British voters to express anger and frustration caused by decades of social and economic crises. The context was favourable to the Leave campaign as it was easy to blame Europe and the migrant crisis for everything that went wrong in the country. Five years after the referendum, the situation is more complex than ever because the Union is at risk and the future is very uncertain.

The Global Dimension of the “Populist Wave”: Possibilities for Differentiated Analysis

The article attempts to reveal if it is possible to make a differentiated analysis of the global dimension of populism by systematizing foreign (mainly) and domestic studies. This allowed us to correlate the theoretical and comparative developments of research on populism, on the one hand, and the relevant, traditional problem areas of the international relations theory. This approach helped us to demonstrate both the existing and potential possibilities for a differentiated analysis of the global aspects of populism. The scientific novelty of the article lies in determining the possibilities of the academic field for the analysis of the foreign policy effects of populism. As a result of the study, the author concluded that the foreign policy positions and policies of populists derive from domestic politics and their opposition to traditional elites. Structural pressure (pressure of the international environment) and the adoption of the rules of the game after coming to power, even if the anti-elite discourse is maintained, make attempts to typify and classify populist foreign policy positions extremely complex and often unproductive.

Populism as a threat to the rule of law

The aim of this paper is to bring the reader closer to what the term populism means, what are its defining elements, in which parts of the world and in what forms is this phenomenon present today, and, finally, what consequences it has on modern democracies and the rule of law. The introductory part of the paper deals with the issue of defining the term populism, presenting the theories that are most common in the literature and setting out the constitutive elements of the term. The paper further provides an overview of the regions in which populism is most present today, with a general inspection of its manifestations and a brief historical outline of its origins. Finally, the paper concludes with the analysis of the negative and positive consequences that the populism has on today's democratic societies, as well as of its impact on the rule of law – i.e., by answering the question of whether the founding pillars of the 21st century rule of law manage to withstand the onslaught of a strong, all-coming, populist wave?