Populism in Europe and the Americas: Threat or Corrective for Democracy?

Cambridge University Press, 5/28/2012
EAN 9781107023857, ISBN10: 1107023858

Hardcover, 270 pages, 23.5 x 16 x 2 cm
Language: English

Although 'populism' has become something of a buzzword in discussions about politics, it tends to be studied by country or region. This is the first book to offer a genuine cross-regional perspective on populism and its impact on democracy. By analyzing current experiences of populism in Europe and the Americas, this edited volume convincingly demonstrates that populism can be both a threat and a corrective to democracy. The contributors also demonstrate the interesting similarities between right-wing and left-wing populism: both types of populism are prone to defend a political model that is not against democracy per se, but rather at odds with liberal democracy. Populism in Europe and the Americas offers new insights into the current state of democracy from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view.

1. Populism and (liberal) democracy
a framework for analysis Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser
2. Populist parties in Belgium
a case of hegemonic liberal democracy? Sarah L. de Lange and Tjitske Akkerman
3. Populism and democracy in Canada's Reform Party David Laycock
4. The Czech Republicans, 1990–8
a populist outsider in a consolidating democracy Seán Hanley
5. 'To hell with your corrupt institutions!'
AMLO and populism in Mexico Kathleen Bruhn
6. Populism in government
the case of Austria (2000–7) Franz Fallend
7. Populism and democracy in Venezuela under Hugo Chávez Kenneth M. Roberts
8. Populism and competitive authoritarianism
the case of Fujimori's Peru Steven Levitsky and James Loxton
9. Populism, democracy, and nationalism in Slovakia Kevin Deegan-Krause
10. Populism
corrective and threat to democracy Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser.

Advance praise: 'Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser's volume makes conceptual and empirical headway on what is difficult terrain. They sensibly define populism as a 'thin-centered' ideology, more akin to a political style that finds highly diverse empirical expressions in conjunction with varying specific circumstances and 'thick' beliefs about the correct social and political order. The editors have done a great job assembling a set of case studies with just the right variance to speak to the theoretical question they put front and center, namely the differential consequences of populism for democratic participation and contestation.' Herbert Kitschelt, George V. Allen Professor of International Relations, Duke University