Populism

Description

Populism is a widely used concept but it is rarely fully understood. For a term which appears so frequently in both popular and specialist writing, the social sciences have given it remarkably little attention. In this lively and engaging book, Paul Taggart surveys the field and concludes that populism has suffered from being considered usually in relation to particular contexts and has therefore become a rather fractured and elusive concept in general terms. To remedy this, the author introduces several themes which illuminate populism across different historical and contemporary cases. He provides a new definition of populism, a survey of other definitions and perspectives, and a guide to populist politics around the world, including the United States, Russia, Latin America, Western Europe and Canada. The second part of the book focuses on the problems of populism and how it relates to democracy, particularly to representative politics. Written in an accessible style, this book is essential reading for those with an interest in politics and sociology who are studying political ideas, ideologies and social movements. Current Titles ii Title Page iii Contents v Preface vii 1: Introduction 1 2: Definitions of Populism 10 Part One - Cases of Populism 23 3: The Politics of Movements and Populist Politics in the United States of America 25 4: To the People! Lessons from Russian Populism 46 5: The Populist Politics of Leadership in Latin America 59 6: Preaching Populism 67 7: The New Populism 73 Part Two - The Characteristics of Populism 89 8: Populism, the People and the Heartland 91 9: Institutional Dilemmas of Populism 99 10: Populism and Representative Politics 108 11: Conclusion 115 References 119 Index 125