The Global Rise of Populism

"Everybody must have heard by now that the so-called 'specter of populism' is once again haunting Europe, the US, the whole world! Obviously, something other than banal paraphrases of Marx is urgently needed to explain populism's complexity. Benjamin Moffitt provides exactly that. His innovative ideas will undoubtedly fuel academic debate for years to come." -- Yannis Stavrakakis * Aristotle University of Thessaloniki * "In the increasingly crowded field of populism studies, The Global Rise of Populism develops a fresh approach. It is a must-read for researchers and students of global populism, the media, and politics." -- Carlos de la Torre * University of Kentucky *

Benjamin Moffitt is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University, Sweden.

Contents and Abstracts1Introduction: The Global Rise of Populism chapter abstractThis introductory chapter sets the scene by outlining the rise of populism across the globe over the past two decades, and introducing the key arguments, themes and structure of the book. The chapter makes the case that we need to rethink populism in an age of media saturation, communicative abundance and a wide perception of global crisis. It does this by focusing on populism's position in a shifting media landscape; populism's genuinely global dimension which moves beyond the Americas and Europe to also take in the Asia-Pacific and Africa; and arguing that populism is not an ideology, strategy, discourse or political logic, but rather a distinct political style comprised of 1) appeal to 'the people' versus 'the elite', 2) 'bad manners', and 3) crisis, breakdown or threat. 2The Problems with Populism chapter abstractThis chapter traces the historical development of the term 'populism', tracing its etymological roots from the US Populist Party of the late nineteenth century through populism's conceptual 'journeys' across the twentieth century, before providing a critical overview of contemporary debates about how to define it. It identifies the four central approaches to populism in the current literature populism as ideology, strategy, discourse and political logic and outlines the key authors, central arguments and key features of each approach. In doing so, it balances the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches, overall showing that while the features of populism that each approach identifies may be valid for example, nearly all agree on the centrality of 'the people' versus 'the elite' or some Other there are problems with the social science categories they use to describe the phenomenon. 3Understanding Contemporary Populism: Populism as a Political Style chapter abstractThis chapter develops the concept of political style as a new way of thinking about populism. Synthesising work on the concept in the fields of rhetoric, political philosophy and political sociology, it defines political style as the repertoires of embodied, symbolically mediated performance made to audiences that are used to create and navigate the fields of power that comprise the political, stretching from the domain of government through to everyday life. It then uses this concept to understand populism. This is done inductively, by examining the cases of 28 populist leaders from around the world, and determining what links them in terms of political style. The three key features of populism thought of in this way are: appeal to 'the people' versus 'the elite'; 'bad manners'; and crisis, breakdown or threat. The chapter then sets out the positive ramifications of using this new conception of populism. 4The Performer: Populism & the Leader chapter abstractThis chapter addresses the specific role of the populist leader as the key 'performer' of contemporary populism. It considers the centrality of leaders within populism, arguing that they should be focused upon above and beyond parties and movements when studying the phenomenon. It then examines how these leaders must negotiate between appearing as both of 'the people' as well as above 'the people' at the same time, balancing performances of ordinariness with extraordinariness. In terms of ordinariness, it looks at populist leaders' 'bad manners' and efforts to distance themselves from 'mainstream' political leaders, focusing on how they flaunt expectations of how politicians are 'supposed' to act. In terms of extraordinariness, it shows how populist leaders present themselves as the embodiment of 'the people', often through performances of strength, health and virility, and how this links with classic