Research Article
BibTex RIS Cite

Populism in Perspective: Many Strategies, Not Populisms

Year 2021, Volume: 22 Issue: 1, 77 - 85, 20.06.2021
https://doi.org/10.17494/ogusbd.952754

Abstract

In the recent years, populism has become a dominant theme in world politics especially through the debates around the issues like Brexit or 2016 US elections. Despite a number of studies exploring the phenomenon, the literature on populism remains highly fragmented due to the lack of a conceptual framework to start the analysis with a tendency to generate too many populisms (e.g. authoritarian populism, neopopulism, third-world populism). This article starts with this puzzling development in the literature and aims to provide a framework that is applicable to the cases of populism via differentiating strategies of populism from its core features. The article argues that there is no need to invent new populisms in each and every case, but a need to map the concept by referring to the core features of populism and strategies available for the usage by populist politicians.

References

  • Albertazzi, D. and McDonnell, D. (2008). Introduction: The Sceptre and the Spectre. In D. Albertazzi, and D. McDonnell (Eds.), Twenty-First Century Populism The Spectre of Western European Democracy (pp. 1-11). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Arditi, B. (2007). Politics on the Edges of Liberalism Difference, Populism, Revolution, Agitation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • BBC. (2017). Erdogan threatens to scrap EU-Turkey migrant deal, March 16.
  • Bonikowski, B. (2016). Three Lessons of Contemporary Populism in Europe and the United States. The Brown Journal of World Affairs, XXIII (I), 9-24.
  • Bugaric, B. (2019). The Two Faces of Populism: Between Authoritarian and Democratic Populism. German Law Journal, 20, 390-400.
  • Canovan, M. (1999). Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy. Political Studies, XLVII, 2-16.
  • Canpolat, C. (2017). ’Post-truth’ çağında Türkiye: İftiralar, itiraflar ve İstanbul’un gerçekleri. Birgün, November 26.
  • Caiani, M. and P. Graziano. (2019). Understanding Varieties of Populism in Times of Crises. West European Politics, 42 (6), 1141-1158.
  • David, I. (2016). Strategic democratisation? A guide to understanding AKP in power. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 24 (4), 478-493.
  • De La Torre, C. (ed.). (2015). The Promise and Perils of Populism: Global Perspectives. Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky.
  • Di Tella, T. S. (1997). Populism into the Twenty-first Century. Government and Opposition, 32 (2), 187-200.
  • Gherghina, S. and Soare, S. (2013). Introduction: Populism – A Sophisticated Concept and Diverse Political Realities. In S. Gherghina, S. Mişcoiu and S. Soare (Eds.), Contemporary Populism: A Controversial Concept and its Diverse Forms (pp. 1-14). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Hadiz, V. R. (2014). A New Islamic Populism and the Contradictions of Development. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 44 (1), 125-143.
  • Johnson, B. (2015). Let’s deal with the Devil: we should work with Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The Telegraph, December 6.
  • Kaya, A. (2016). The rise of populist extremism in Europe: Theoretical Tools for Comparison. İstanbul Bilgi University Critical Heritages (CoHERE): performing and representing identities in Europe, Work Package 2, December 1, İstanbul.
  • Mazzoleni, G. (2008). Populism and the Media. In D. Albertazzi and D. McDonnell, (Eds.), Twenty-First Century Populism The Spectre of Western European Democracy (pp. 49-64). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Mişcoiu, S. (2013). From Populism to Neo-populism? Empirical Guidelines for a Conceptual Delineation. In S. Gherghina, S. Mişcoiu and S. Soare (Eds.), Contemporary Populism: A Controversial Concept and its Diverse Forms. (pp. 16-29). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Moffitt, B. (2016). The Global Rise of Populism: Performance, Political Style and Representation. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  • Morini, M. (2013). Old and New Populism in Russian Politics. In In S. Gherghina, S. Mişcoiu and S. Soare (Eds.), Contemporary Populism: A Controversial Concept and its Diverse Forms. (pp. 356-370). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Mudde, C. (2004). The Populist Zeitgeist. Government and Opposition, 39 (4), 541-563.
  • Mudde, C. and Kaltwasser, C.R. (2018). Studying Populism in Comparative Perspective: Reflections on the Contemporary and Future Research Agenda. Comparative Political Studies, 51 (13), 1667-1693.
  • Mudde, C. and Kaltwasser, C. R. (2015). Exclusionary vs. Inclusionary Populism: Comparing Contemporary Europe and Latin America. Government and Opposition, 48 (2), 147-174.
  • Munro-Kua, A. (1996). Authoritarian Populism in Malaysia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Oruçoğlu, B. (2015). How President Erdoğan mastered the media. Foreign Policy, August 12.
  • Oxford Dictionaries. (2020). Post Truth, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/post-truth Pasquino, G. (2008). Populism and Democracy. In D. Albertazzi and D. McDonnell (Eds.), Twenty-First Century Populism The Spectre of Western European Democracy. (15-29). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Peters, B.G. and Pierre, J. (2020). A Typology of Populism: Understanding the Different Forms of Populism and their Implications. Democratization, 27 (6), 928-946.
  • Rooduijn, M. (2014). The Nucleus of Populism: In Search of the Lowest Common Denominator. Government and Opposition, 49 (4), 572-598.
  • Selçuk, O. (2016). Strong Presidents and Weak Institutions: Populism in Turkey, Venezuela and Ecuador. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 16 (4), 571-589.
  • Speed, E. and Mannion, R. (2017). The Rise of Post-truth Populism in Pluralist Liberal Democracies: Challenges for Health Policy. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 6 (5), 249-251.
  • Stanley, B. (2008). The Thin Ideology of Populism. Journal of Political Ideologies, 13 (1), 95-110.
  • Taggart, P. (2004). Populism and Representative Politics in Contemporary Europe. Journal of Political Ideologies, 9 (3), 269-288.
  • Tarchi, M. (2013). Populism and Political Science: How to get rid of the ‘Cinderella Complex’. In S. Gherghina, S. Mişcoiu and S. Soare (Eds.), Contemporary Populism: A Controversial Concept and its Diverse Forms. (pp. 114-135). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Temelkuran, E. (2016). Truth is a lost game in Turkey. Don’t let the same thing happen to you. Guardian, December 15.
  • The Economist. (2017). Turkey hurls “Nazi” allegations to boost its president’s support. March 15.
  • Yilmaz, G. (2019). Post-truth Politics in the 2017 Euro-Turkish Crisis. Journal of Contemporary European Politics, 27 (2), 237-246

Populism in Perspective: Many Strategies, Not Populisms

Year 2021, Volume: 22 Issue: 1, 77 - 85, 20.06.2021
https://doi.org/10.17494/ogusbd.952754

Abstract

In the recent years, populism has become a dominant theme in world politics especially through the debates around the issues like Brexit or 2016 US elections. Despite a number of studies exploring the phenomenon, the literature on populism remains highly fragmented due to the lack of a conceptual framework to start the analysis with a tendency to generate too many populisms (e.g. authoritarian populism, neopopulism, third-world populism). This article starts with this puzzling development in the literature and aims to provide a framework that is applicable to the cases of populism via differentiating strategies of populism from its core features. The article argues that there is no need to invent new populisms in each and every case, but a need to map the concept by referring to the core features of populism and strategies available for the usage by populist politicians.

References

  • Albertazzi, D. and McDonnell, D. (2008). Introduction: The Sceptre and the Spectre. In D. Albertazzi, and D. McDonnell (Eds.), Twenty-First Century Populism The Spectre of Western European Democracy (pp. 1-11). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Arditi, B. (2007). Politics on the Edges of Liberalism Difference, Populism, Revolution, Agitation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • BBC. (2017). Erdogan threatens to scrap EU-Turkey migrant deal, March 16.
  • Bonikowski, B. (2016). Three Lessons of Contemporary Populism in Europe and the United States. The Brown Journal of World Affairs, XXIII (I), 9-24.
  • Bugaric, B. (2019). The Two Faces of Populism: Between Authoritarian and Democratic Populism. German Law Journal, 20, 390-400.
  • Canovan, M. (1999). Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy. Political Studies, XLVII, 2-16.
  • Canpolat, C. (2017). ’Post-truth’ çağında Türkiye: İftiralar, itiraflar ve İstanbul’un gerçekleri. Birgün, November 26.
  • Caiani, M. and P. Graziano. (2019). Understanding Varieties of Populism in Times of Crises. West European Politics, 42 (6), 1141-1158.
  • David, I. (2016). Strategic democratisation? A guide to understanding AKP in power. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 24 (4), 478-493.
  • De La Torre, C. (ed.). (2015). The Promise and Perils of Populism: Global Perspectives. Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky.
  • Di Tella, T. S. (1997). Populism into the Twenty-first Century. Government and Opposition, 32 (2), 187-200.
  • Gherghina, S. and Soare, S. (2013). Introduction: Populism – A Sophisticated Concept and Diverse Political Realities. In S. Gherghina, S. Mişcoiu and S. Soare (Eds.), Contemporary Populism: A Controversial Concept and its Diverse Forms (pp. 1-14). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Hadiz, V. R. (2014). A New Islamic Populism and the Contradictions of Development. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 44 (1), 125-143.
  • Johnson, B. (2015). Let’s deal with the Devil: we should work with Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The Telegraph, December 6.
  • Kaya, A. (2016). The rise of populist extremism in Europe: Theoretical Tools for Comparison. İstanbul Bilgi University Critical Heritages (CoHERE): performing and representing identities in Europe, Work Package 2, December 1, İstanbul.
  • Mazzoleni, G. (2008). Populism and the Media. In D. Albertazzi and D. McDonnell, (Eds.), Twenty-First Century Populism The Spectre of Western European Democracy (pp. 49-64). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Mişcoiu, S. (2013). From Populism to Neo-populism? Empirical Guidelines for a Conceptual Delineation. In S. Gherghina, S. Mişcoiu and S. Soare (Eds.), Contemporary Populism: A Controversial Concept and its Diverse Forms. (pp. 16-29). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Moffitt, B. (2016). The Global Rise of Populism: Performance, Political Style and Representation. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  • Morini, M. (2013). Old and New Populism in Russian Politics. In In S. Gherghina, S. Mişcoiu and S. Soare (Eds.), Contemporary Populism: A Controversial Concept and its Diverse Forms. (pp. 356-370). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Mudde, C. (2004). The Populist Zeitgeist. Government and Opposition, 39 (4), 541-563.
  • Mudde, C. and Kaltwasser, C.R. (2018). Studying Populism in Comparative Perspective: Reflections on the Contemporary and Future Research Agenda. Comparative Political Studies, 51 (13), 1667-1693.
  • Mudde, C. and Kaltwasser, C. R. (2015). Exclusionary vs. Inclusionary Populism: Comparing Contemporary Europe and Latin America. Government and Opposition, 48 (2), 147-174.
  • Munro-Kua, A. (1996). Authoritarian Populism in Malaysia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Oruçoğlu, B. (2015). How President Erdoğan mastered the media. Foreign Policy, August 12.
  • Oxford Dictionaries. (2020). Post Truth, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/post-truth Pasquino, G. (2008). Populism and Democracy. In D. Albertazzi and D. McDonnell (Eds.), Twenty-First Century Populism The Spectre of Western European Democracy. (15-29). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Peters, B.G. and Pierre, J. (2020). A Typology of Populism: Understanding the Different Forms of Populism and their Implications. Democratization, 27 (6), 928-946.
  • Rooduijn, M. (2014). The Nucleus of Populism: In Search of the Lowest Common Denominator. Government and Opposition, 49 (4), 572-598.
  • Selçuk, O. (2016). Strong Presidents and Weak Institutions: Populism in Turkey, Venezuela and Ecuador. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 16 (4), 571-589.
  • Speed, E. and Mannion, R. (2017). The Rise of Post-truth Populism in Pluralist Liberal Democracies: Challenges for Health Policy. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 6 (5), 249-251.
  • Stanley, B. (2008). The Thin Ideology of Populism. Journal of Political Ideologies, 13 (1), 95-110.
  • Taggart, P. (2004). Populism and Representative Politics in Contemporary Europe. Journal of Political Ideologies, 9 (3), 269-288.
  • Tarchi, M. (2013). Populism and Political Science: How to get rid of the ‘Cinderella Complex’. In S. Gherghina, S. Mişcoiu and S. Soare (Eds.), Contemporary Populism: A Controversial Concept and its Diverse Forms. (pp. 114-135). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Temelkuran, E. (2016). Truth is a lost game in Turkey. Don’t let the same thing happen to you. Guardian, December 15.
  • The Economist. (2017). Turkey hurls “Nazi” allegations to boost its president’s support. March 15.
  • Yilmaz, G. (2019). Post-truth Politics in the 2017 Euro-Turkish Crisis. Journal of Contemporary European Politics, 27 (2), 237-246
There are 35 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Gözde Yılmaz 0000-0002-8876-953X

Publication Date June 20, 2021
Submission Date November 7, 2020
Published in Issue Year 2021 Volume: 22 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Yılmaz, G. (2021). Populism in Perspective: Many Strategies, Not Populisms. Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 22(1), 77-85. https://doi.org/10.17494/ogusbd.952754
AMA Yılmaz G. Populism in Perspective: Many Strategies, Not Populisms. Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi. June 2021;22(1):77-85. doi:10.17494/ogusbd.952754
Chicago Yılmaz, Gözde. “Populism in Perspective: Many Strategies, Not Populisms”. Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 22, no. 1 (June 2021): 77-85. https://doi.org/10.17494/ogusbd.952754.
EndNote Yılmaz G (June 1, 2021) Populism in Perspective: Many Strategies, Not Populisms. Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 22 1 77–85.
IEEE G. Yılmaz, “Populism in Perspective: Many Strategies, Not Populisms”, Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 77–85, 2021, doi: 10.17494/ogusbd.952754.
ISNAD Yılmaz, Gözde. “Populism in Perspective: Many Strategies, Not Populisms”. Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 22/1 (June 2021), 77-85. https://doi.org/10.17494/ogusbd.952754.
JAMA Yılmaz G. Populism in Perspective: Many Strategies, Not Populisms. Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi. 2021;22:77–85.
MLA Yılmaz, Gözde. “Populism in Perspective: Many Strategies, Not Populisms”. Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, vol. 22, no. 1, 2021, pp. 77-85, doi:10.17494/ogusbd.952754.
Vancouver Yılmaz G. Populism in Perspective: Many Strategies, Not Populisms. Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi. 2021;22(1):77-85.