Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2018 by Janne E. Nijman & Wouter G. Werner

Author:Janne E. Nijman & Wouter G. Werner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789462653313
Publisher: T.M.C. Asser Press

7.2.2 Characteristics of Populism

Canovan notes that the only trait that seems to be shared by all those studying populism is the reliance on the appeals to the people.26 In the period in which most political systems are, or at least claim to be, democracies built on the will of the people, such an understanding risks rendering the whole concept unhelpful. Another problem arises due to the misuse of the term in the political discourse. As Mudde notes, there are two dominant interpretations of populism, both negatively charged.27 The first refers to a ‘highly emotional and simplistic discourse that is directed at the “gut feelings” of the people’.28 The second refers to opportunistic politics aimed at quickly pleasing the people/voters and so buying their support. In the two cases, the term is invoked to brand, and discredit, political opponents. This would seem to confirm that Dahrendorf is right when noting, in paraphrasing the well-known quote about terrorism, that ‘the one’s populism, is other one’s democracy, and vice versa’.29 Yet, if this is so, then the concept of populism is devoid of any analytical value.

To have such a value, it has to be used as a descriptive, rather than evaluative concept and it has to get a more specific meaning than the one indicated by Canovan. Several scholars have put forward definitions of populism which meet these conditions rather well and which, moreover, largely overlap. Mudde proposes to define populism as ‘an ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people’.30 For Albertazzi and McDonnell, populism isan ideology which pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous ‘others’ who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity and voice.31

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