Different approaches to populism: representation, style, and the future of democracy

Abstract

The four reviewed books belong among the most influential contemporary contributions to theories of populism. Approaches described by authors are different, and together they do not provide a coherent view of defining features of populism. Moreover, they remain in disagreement on whether to evaluate populism as a threat or deepening of democracy. To overcome such a difference of opinions, I propose to focus more on the role of populistic representation instead of defining features of populism. In addition, I suggest applying a populistic style approach that provides a helpful description of populism since it outlines populism as a useful and valuable concept when describing contemporary political changes and does not understand it necessarily as a democracy’s dead-end.

Keywords

• populism
• democracy
• representation
• political style
• leader