Populism
Disgusted by Donald Trump? Turning away from the spectacle isn’t an option
Almost nine months into the Trump presidency, it may be harder than ever to make sense of what is happening. How do we fully understand what seems to be a hybrid of Lewis Carroll and Stephen King imaginaries – of the Mad Hatter and Pennywise the Clown? Ron Pruessen considers his own frustrations and speculates about what […]
Book review | Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics
In Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics, Nicole Hemmer argues that broadcasters like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are but the second generation of conservative media activists. Americans, says Hemmer, are used to thinking of such figures as being integral to contemporary conservatism; her book tells the story of the […]
Six things to know about the German election
Ahead of Germany’s federal election on 24 September, Manès Weisskircher (European University Institute) highlights six things to know as voters go to the polls. While many observers are expecting a clear victory for Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU, the performance of smaller parties will also be keenly followed – as it is highly likely there will be as many […]
Book reviews | Deplorable Me, Devil’s Bargain & Kill All Normies
JA Smith reflects on two recent books that help us to take stock of the election of President Donald Trump as part of the wider rise of the ‘alt-right’, questioning furthermore how the left today might contend with the emergence of those at one time termed ‘a basket of deplorables’. Similar PostsPopulist politicians on both sides […]
Despite its anti-democratic agenda, Poland’s Law and Justice party still enjoys public support
The Polish Law and Justice party has governed for nearly two years. Its anti-democratic agenda has led to protests at home and criticism abroad. Kamil Marcinkiewicz (University of Hamburg) and Mary Stegmaier (University of Missouri) examine trends in party support in Poland and consider whether PiS still has a mandate to pursue its current course. […]
There are at least 2,234 expressions of ‘democracy’ – and the less common versions can teach us a lot
Over the course of recorded history, the concept of ‘democracy’ has been associated with many different ‘partner’ words, each of which ‘re-versions’ the core concept in a different way. Jean-Paul Gagnon has compiled a database that already includes hundreds of these expressions, some obvious and much-used, but others very specific or little known. What can […]
Book reviews | A Brexit summer reading round-up
Have you been struggling to keep up with all the new books on Brexit? Were you secretly planning to spend your summer holiday catching up on some of them? OK – perhaps not. Nonetheless, Tim Oliver has rounded up some of the best books about Brexit published since the referendum. Similar PostsBook review | Guilty Men – […]
Can the young save democracy from the grip of neoliberalism and populism?
Populism is not just a symptom of older people’s nostalgia for traditional values, writes Henrik P Bang. It is a rejection of a global neoliberal creed that pits individuals against each other. The hard-won social capital and notions of fairness that older generations prize have been replaced by a race for success in which human relationships exist […]
Trump, Brexit and baby Searyl: what is the populist signal really telling us?
Are people rejecting democracy, as some scholars suggest? Matt Flinders asks whether a focus upon all things ‘post’ – post-Trump, post-Brexit, post-truth, post-democratic – has prevented scholars and social commentators from looking beyond or beneath the populist signal. Trump’s success, and that of other populists, is little more than the socio-political manifestation of a deeper set of structural […]
The curious case of Britain First: wildly popular on Facebook, but a flop in elections
The far right party Britain First has enjoyed enormous success on Facebook. Yet it remains on the extreme fringe of mainstream politics, gaining only 1.2% of the vote in the London mayoral elections and not even contesting the 2017 General Election. What has driven its popularity on social media and what does the party intend […]
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