Informace o kurzu

JPM813 Populism and Democracy

Populism is often considered antithetical to democratic pluralism due to its emphasis on the supremacy of the general will. At the same time, the nature of populism is contested and multifaceted. The definitions of populism and its effects (both positive and negative) on democracy vary according to the author's views of democratic politics. For liberal scholars, populism is a threat and a democratic pathology: a backlash against modernization, representative politics and democratic pluralism. For scholars of radical democracy, populism is an integral part of democracy. They view it as a discursive mode of political articulation beneficial for democracy, for it integrates currently excluded demands. Finally, scholars of the minimalist approach see populism as an ambivalent 'thin ideology,' whereas instrumentalists view it as a political strategy. In this course, we will address three issues: the relationship between populism and democracy, the effects of populism on democracy, and the three main forms of populism today (right-wing populism - nativism, left-wing populism – emancipatory, and technocratic populism). This course aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the relationship of populism(s) to democracy. This course is divided into two sections: democracy and populism, and populism from a comparative perspective.