An Introduction to Populism (Again…)

September 10, 2025September 8, 2025Leave a comment

Populism isn’t just another political buzzword (well, it’s also that…)—but it is an important tool to understand today’s world, if used correctly. The problem? Everyone talks about populism, but few can actually pin down what it is. Is it a dangerous threat to democracy—or a much-needed wake-up call? Is it ideology, performance, strategy… or all of the above? Who counts as “the people,” and who are “the elites”?

Enter Populism: An Introduction. This isn’t another academic doorstop—it’s an accessible guide that cuts through the noise. Written by leading scholars but crafted for students, readers, and anyone curious about the forces reshaping our world, it connects big theories with real-world politics in a way that finally clicks. If you’ve ever wanted to go beyond the headlines and actually understand how populism works—and why it matters right now—this is the book.

Professors everywhere are being asked to explain what it is, why it matters, and how it’s reshaping politics across the globe. The problem? Most readings are either too dense, too narrow, or too disconnected from what students actually want to learn. That’s why Populism: An Introduction is such a game-changer. Finally, a resource that makes teaching populism not just possible, but exciting. It reminds me in more than a way of my own The Populism Interviews, but with a different approach.

And now, the editors themselves explain how they pulled it off.

Enjoy the read!

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Do we need yet another handbook on populism?

March 12, 2025March 12, 2025Leave a comment

Populism has been one of the most debated topics in contemporary political science, drawing waves of scholarly attention after major global events. In particular, the dual shocks of Brexit and Donald Trump’s election in 2016 cemented populism as a central topic of political analysis—often leading to its use as a buzzword rather than a useful tool for understanding the world we live in. The explosion of academic research, resulting in numerous books, journal articles, and dedicated scholarly journals, hasn’t always seemed necessary, to say the least. This raises the question: do we need yet another handbook on populism?

The recent publication of the Research Handbook on Populism, edited by Yannis Stavrakakis and Giorgos Katsambekis, demonstrates that the academic field continues to evolve. This handbook seeks to provide a comprehensive and theoretically nuanced examination of populism, incorporating various perspectives and disciplinary approaches. It covers the four dominant frameworks in populism studies—the ideational, discourse-theoretical, strategic, and socio-cultural approaches—while also integrating historical analyses and contributions from diverse academic fields such as political economy, international relations, and psychoanalysis.

This article, written by Antonis Galanopoulos, explores the significance of this new handbook within the broader landscape of populism studies, assessing the unique contributions of the handbook, its methodological pluralism, and its efforts to address gaps in existing literature. Furthermore, it critically examines its strengths and potential limitations, considering how it shapes future research directions in the study of populism.

And to fill the gap identified by Antonis, namely the lack of a guide on how to navigate the chaos created by the recent populism boom and consequent hype, well…there are always The Populism Interviews for that 😉

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Interview #67 – Exploring Left-Wing Nationalism

November 18, 2024November 13, 2024Leave a comment

In this thought-provoking interview, Jacopo Custodi challenges conventional ideas about nationalism by shedding light on its role within left-wing ideologies. Often associated with the right, nationalism is far from incompatible with progressive politics. Drawing from his latest book, Custodi discusses how left-wing nationalism manifests in diverse ways across European contexts, specifically in Southern Europe. We discuss the distinctions between left- and right-wing nationalism, the nuanced ways leftist parties engage with national identity, and the interplay between nationalism and populism. Reclaiming a sense of nationhood can serve progressive goals—though it requires careful balancing to avoid the pitfalls of exclusionary nationalism.

Enjoy the read…

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Portuguese Populism – A Special Issue

October 21, 2024October 25, 2024Leave a comment

Populism in Portugal: the End of Exceptionalism?

This is the title of the special issue I have been working on as a guest editor since 2022. I am glad to announce that it is finally out for Análise Social, the oldest Portuguese journal in social sciences, and house journal of the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon. Half a century after the Carnation Revolution, this is an excellent moment to investigate the presence of populism in a country often considered immune.

The special issue is composed of an introduction and eight research articles: it can be found here in open access, both in Portuguese and English. I hope it will fill some of the gaps that have hitherto characterized the study of populism in Portugal and at the same time offer a starting point for anyone interested in working on these issues.

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Interview #64 – Populism and Constitutional Resilience

June 17, 2024June 18, 2024Leave a comment

The impact of populists in power is always a much-debated topic. There are the apocalyptics, who predict locusts and other misfortunes every time a populist comes to power. Then there are those like Jasmin Sarah König, who analyse the data, observe the context, and draw conclusions by considering the pros and cons, situations and characteristics of the actors involved, and the systems in which these processes occur.

For example, Jasmin argues that when they are part of coalition governments, populist parties cannot simply implement the policies they want. When there are proper political checks and balances – not only through judicial institutions but through other political parties or organizations – possible negative consequences of populism can be contained.

She studied in detail whether the legislation initiated by the populist radical right FPÖ is unconstitutional more often than the laws initiated by other parties. The findings suggest that the FPÖ did not transgress constitutional boundaries more often than other parties because populist radical right parties can be forced to moderate when they need to compromise with a coalition partner.

Because, in the end, our constitutions are neither solid nor weak: they are just paper. It’s up to us to protect them.

Enjoy the read…

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Interview #63 – Smashing the Establishment

April 30, 2024April 30, 2024Leave a comment

What are anti-establishment parties, and what do they have to do with populism? Can they also be technocratic? How have they been evolving over time? Are all parties equally credible when they produce a political message against the status quo? Can ‘normal’ parties become populist? We discuss all these issues – but also the evolution of the German AfD, Margaret Canovan, and the populist Zeitgeist – in this interview with Bartek Pytlas.

Enjoy the read.

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Populism in Central and South-Eastern Europe

January 31, 2024January 23, 2024Leave a comment

Natasza Styczyńska presents a book about populism outside of Western Europe. This, per se, is already a very interesting premise because way too often we tend to conflate ‘European populism’ with just a few Western European countries, while this new volume describes the characteristics of populism in Central and South-Eastern Europe. Moreover, the volume offers a very interesting overview of the features that unite different populist manifestations across Poland, Hungary, Czechia, Serbia, Croatia, and Montenegro as well as the differences between several types of populisms in these countries. Natasza Styczyńska discusses the interactions between populism and phenomena such as Euroscepticism, religion, corruption, clientelism and oligarchic structures across Central and South-Eastern European countries, with an eye to the post-communist transition and the formation of ‘democratic illiberalism’.

Enjoy the read…

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Interview #61 – Mainstreaming Authoritarianism

January 16, 2024January 12, 20241 Comment

In this interview we talk with Giorgos Katsambekis about the process of mainstreaming of authoritarianism. The topics approached in this conversation are extremely relevant given the current Zeitgeist. In these days Donald Trump is trying a comeback after the 2021 failed coup, in Italy 1000 fascists gathered in Rome to commemorate their dead camerati, with a great display of fascist salutes and Celtic crosses, while the French ‘moderate Right’ approved a controversial anti-immigration bill that the radical Right considers a victory.

Katsambekis offers a lucid account of the processes that make it possible for authoritarian ideas, values, and discourses to move from the margins of the public debate to its very centre, combining a profound theoretical reflection with concrete examples from France, Greece, the United States, and the European Parliament.

Enjoy the read…

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Brothers and Sisters of Italy: From Fascist Roots to Normalization — A Double Interview

July 11, 2023September 26, 20231 Comment

In this double interview we finally talk about Italy with two Professors, Filippo Tronconi and Gianfranco Baldini, who are investigating Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy. This is an important interview that makes up, at least in part, for POP’s lack of attention to Italy. Being an Italian myself, I have always preferred not to deal with Italy because Italian politics (as interesting as it is) is also neurotic, unbearable, and at times incommentable.

The time to open this wound and look into it has finally come.

Tronconi and Baldini explain the electoral success of Brothers of Italy, a relatively new party that replaced Salvini’s Lega as the biggest party in the conservative camp. They help us understanding many important aspects of Brothers of Italy. First, what kind of party is it? Populist radical right? Nationalist and conservative? Neofascist? Second, how is it possible that the first female Prime Minister in Italy is not at all interested in any feminist agenda but rather proposes a traditional family model? And how did the party change once it won the elections and took power? Is Giorgia Meloni going to try and Orbanize Italy? How could she go from admiring Putin for years to endorse the sending of weapons to Ukraine?

The answers to these and many other questions in this long, dense interview.

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Interview #58 — The Will of the People

June 28, 2023June 27, 2023Leave a comment

In conversation with Yanina Welp, we discuss some of the topics present in her last book: The will of the people. Populism and citizens participation in Latin America. Latin America is a region where populism is prolific and often appears with characteristics that are different compared to European populism.

POP already devoted several interviews and articles about populism in Latin America and in comparison with Europe, with a focus on the Andes region and Brazil among other things, and if you are interested in Latin American populism you can find much more content in The Populism Interviews, including an amazing interview to Federico Finchelstein.

In today’s interview we discuss the inclusion of the people’s will in populist political projects across Latin America, instances of controlled mobilisation, the importance of trust in institutions and among people, dissatisfaction with democracy, democratic political culture, the role of political parties, and much more.

Enjoy the read.

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