The comeback of populism transatlantic perspectives
"Populism" is a fuzzy and diffuse term. It neither identifies a specific political program nor does it clearly situate political positions along a left-to-right spectrum. Instead, it refers to a particular strategy of communication and a style of political performance. Analyzing the sweeping resurgence of populism in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, this volume seeks to shed light on some of the implications of populism's astonishing comeback from a transatlantic and interdisciplinary point of view and to evaluate it in both, a diachronic and a synchronic perspective. Contemporary populisms need to be interpreted and understood in their cultural and political specificities, i.e. their local forms, on the one hand, and their global interrelation and outreach, on the other. They often share an authoritarian approach intertwined with anti-elitist and anti-establishment resentments while posing as capturing and expressing the 'voice of the people.' Real or imagined scenarios of threat and anxiety are met with a rhetoric of emancipation from suffering and victimization, yet this emancipatory zeal is couched in a militant rhetoric of exclusion and, usually, nativism. Working through populism's simplifcations and mystifications, the contributions examine its discursive strategies in nuanced ways. Among the authors are Frank Decker, Akwugo Emejulu, D. Sunshine Hillygus, Michael Hochgeschwender, Carlos de la Torre, and Hans Vorländer
Print Book, English, 2019
Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg, 2019