Populism, Cleavages, and Democracy


Abstract


Since the Eighties populist parties have gained a growing electoral consensus in many coun-tries. The current wave of populism, that can be called as "multifaceted populism", is the third of three waves that occurred over the years. Building on Rokkan's cleavage theory, the present study intends to argue that the three different waves were originated by the same cleavage. Such a cleavage is characterized by the opposition between the elite and the people, and by the opposition between a participatory conception of democracy and two other conceptions of democracy, namely the elitist and the constitutional ones. In other words, populism emerges to counteract the overly elitist or procedural traits that democracy can develop. But if, on the one hand, populism can help democracy to revitalize itself, on the other hand, it can promote a radical communitarian form of democracy, which is in contrast with the liberal system of checks and balances and may ultimately lead to an erosion of pluralism.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v11i1p202

Keywords: Populism; political parties; cleavages; democracy

References


Abts K., Rummens S. (2007) “Populism versus Democracy”, Political Studies, 55(2): 405–424.

Akkerman A., Zaslove A. and Spruyt B. (2017) “‘We the People’ or ‘We the Peoples’? A Comparison of Support for the Populist Radical Right and Populist Radical Left in the Netherlands”, Swiss Political Science Review, 23(4): 377–403.

Albertazzi D., McDonnel D. (eds. 2008) Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European Democracy, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

Anselmi M. (2018) Populism. An Introduction, London and New York: Routledge.

Arditi B. (2003) “Populism, or, politics at the edges of democracy”, Contemporary Politics, 9(1): 17–31.

Bartolini S., Mair P. (1990) Identity, Competition, and Electoral Availability: The Stabilization of European Electorates 1885–1985, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Biorcio R. (2015) Il populimo nella politica italiana. Da Bossi a Berlusconi, da Grillo a Renzi, Milano: Mimesis.

Bornschier S. (2010) Cleavage Politics and the Populist Right. The New Cultural Conflict in Western Europe, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Canovan M. (1981) Populism, NewYork: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

de Lange S.L., Mügge L.M. (2015) “Gender and right-wing populism in the Low Countries: ideological variations across parties and time”, Patterns of Prejudice, 49(1-2): 61–80.

Denemark D., Bowler S. (2002) “Minor parties and protest votes in Australia and New Zealand: locating populist politics”, Electoral Studies, 21(1): 47–67.

Eisenstadt S.N. (1999) Paradoxes of democracy, Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press.

Hermet G. (2001) Les populisms dans le mond. Une histoire sociologique XIXe-XXe siecle, Paris: Fayard.

Hermet G. (2013) “Foundational Populism”, in S. Gherghina, S. Mişcoiu, and S. Soare (eds.) Contemporary populism: a controversial concept and its diverse forms, Newcastle upon Tyne Cambridge: Scholars Publishing, pp. 84–113.

Inglehart R.F., Norris P. (2016) “Trump, Brexit, and the Rise of Populism: Economic Have-Nots and Cultural Backlash”, Harvard Kennedy School, Faculty Research Working Papers (https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/getFile.aspx?Id=1401).

Jagers J., Walgrave S. (2007) “Populism as Political Communication Style: An Empirical Study of Political Parties’ Discourse in Belgium”, European Journal of Political Research, 46(3): 319–345.

Rovira Kaltwasser C., Taggart P., Ochoa Espejo P., and Ostiguy P. (eds. 2017) The Oxford Handbook of Populism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kazin M. (1998) The Populist Persuasion. An American History, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Kriesi H. (1994) Les Démocraties Occidentales. Une Approche Comparée, Paris: Economica.

Kriesi H., Grande E., Lachat R., Dolezal M., Bornschier S., and Frey T. (2008) West European Politics in the Age of Globalization, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kriesi H. (2015) “Populism. Concepts and conditions for its rise in Europe”, Comunicazione Politica, 2: 175-193.

Kriesi H., Pappas T.S. (eds. 2015) European Populism in the Shadow of the Great Recession, Colchester: Ecpr Press.

March L. (2011) Radical Left Parties in Europe, London and New York: Routledge.

Mény Y., Surel Y. (2000) Par le people, pour le people, Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard.

Moffitt B., Turney S. (2013) “Rethinking Populism: Politics, Mediatisation and Political Style”, Political Studies, 62(2): 381–397.

Moore B. jr, (1966) Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World, Boston: Beacon Press.

Mudde C. (2004) “The Populist Zeitgeist”, Government and Opposition, 39(4): 541–563.

Mudde C. (2007) Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mudde C., Rovira Kaltwasser C. (2013) “Populism”, in M. Freeden, L.T. Sargent, and M. Stears (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 493–512.

Oliver E.J., Rahn W.M. (2016) “Rise of the Trumpenvolk: populism in the 2016 election”, The ANNALS of the America Academy of Political and Social Science, (667)1: 189–206.

Ostiguy P. (2009) “The high and the low in politics: a two-dimensional political space for comparative analysis and electoral studies”, Kellogg Institute Working Paper #360.

Ostiguy P. (2017) “Populism. A Socio-Cultural Approach”, in Rovira Kaltwasser, C. et al. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Populism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 73–97.

Palano D. (2017) Populismo, Milano: Editrice Bibliografica.

Rokkan S., Lipset S.M. (1967) “Cleavage structures, party systems and voter alignments. An introduction”, in S. Rokkan, S.M. Lipset (eds.) Party Systems and Voter Alignments. Cross-National Perspectives, New York: Free Press, pp. 1–64.

Rokkan S., Lipset S.M. (1985) “Cleavage structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments”, in S.M. Lipset, Consensus and Conflict. Essays in Political Sociology, New Brunswick and Oxford: Transaction Books, pp. 113–185.

Ruzza C. (2017) “The Populist Radical Right and Social Movements” in R.C. Heinisch, C. Holtz-Bacha, and O. Mazzoleni (eds.), Political Populism: a Handbook, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, pp. 87–103.

Subramanian N. (2007) “Populism in India”, SAIS Review of International Affairs, 27(1): 81–91.

Taggart P. (2000) Populism, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Taguieff P.A. (2002) L’illusion populiste, Paris: Berg International Éditeurs.

Tarchi M. (2015) Italia populista. Dal qualunquismo a Beppe Grillo, Bologna: il Mulino.

Verbeek B., Zaslove A. (2015) “The impact of populist radical right parties on foreign policy: the Northern League as a junior coalition partner in the Berlusconi Governments”, European Political Science Review, 7(4): 525–546.

Weyland K. (2001) “Clarifying a Contested Concept – Populism in the Study of Latin American Politics”, Comparative Politics, 34(1): 1–22.

Woods D. (2014) “The Many Faces of Populism: Diverse but not Disparate”, Research in Political Sociology, 22: 1–26.

Zanatta L. (2017) Storia dell’America Latina contemporanea, Bari-Roma: Laterza.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
کاغذ a4
Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.