Ambivalences of populism: The case of Catalan independentism (original) (raw)
Related papers
2020
This paper is part of the debate about the political identity of the organization Podemos. The objective is to discuss the question, which part of the literature supports, of the supposed populist identity of Podemos. In this way we seek to analyze the literature on Podemos as part of the discussion about the populist phenomenon and discuss if the characterization of the literature as a left-wing populism corresponds with the political documents of the formation, in particular its vision on the representation and democracy, and with its organizational structure as a political force.
Populism: Democracy's Pharmakon?
This paper seeks to resolve one of the key tensions in the literature on populism: whether populism is a threat to democracy or the best means of renewing and deepening democracy. The author argues that rather than defining populism in terms of certain definite outcomes, we should view populism as a symptom of crisis, and one capable of producing a variety of possible effects, some positive and some negative. The argument is pursued in terms of highlighting certain shortcomings in terms of the dominant approaches to the issue, and also through exploring recent Spanish politics, which has seen an increase in various kinds of populist parties and movements. The renewal of democracy in Spain is offered as an example of how populist initiatives can have beneficial outcomes, as well as detrimental ones.
The article deals with a current phenomenon that grows up in (not only) European politics and society today. The subject of my investigation, rise of the nationalist populism, is analysed in relation to the increase of the social poverty and (reconstructed) media picture of the migrant crisis. In the following text, the both causes (poverty and media) of the populism are linked with the neoliberal political ideology that is hegemonic nowadays. The analysis is primarily focused on examples from the Czech Republic but this does not mean we cannot find similar features of the phenomena in other countries (for example Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, etc.) where these political conditions exist as well. By the support of the Minimal state and expanse of the media images in the society, neoliberalism extends the fear of incoming migrants that are – by the society – considered to be a threat. On this base, the article is going to refer the changes in the public opinion on one of the major democratic mechanism, agency of the civil society that has been a part of the real liberal political system. Without evaluating whether to accept or reject the migrants, the study describes negative symptoms of the construed fear that could lead to the so-called post-fascism. By this term, I label the simple political solutions of the complex problems.
Populism and Democracy: An Ambiguous Relationship
SSRN Electronic Journal
The question of the link between populism and democracy is a crucial one and for this purpose this paper will attempt to illustrate the relationship between the two phenomena. Firstly, populism and democracy will be approached from the point of political theory. Secondly, there will be an attempt to present the ambiguity of populism through a conceptual analysis. In the scientific research on the phenomenon of populism, there is still a lack of consensus on the way that populism should ultimately be evaluated from a democratic point of view. However, on the contrary to the negative notion of populism, democracy is associated with clearly positive attitudes. In this sense, the problem of populism is linked to political science with more disreputable manifestations of the political phenomenon. But the dividing line between populism and legitimate democratic confrontation is simply too vague. Populism affects democracy and vice versa. It is not easy to design an absolute dividing line between the two phenomena. However, the reference to the people plays an important role in the controversial form of expression of populism. From this point of view, in this paper there will be an attempt to analyze the fundamental distinctions between democracy and populism, by studying the characteristics of populism that have an actual positive impact on democracy as well as the opportunities and useful corrective elements it offers to it. On the contrary, criticism will be attempted to the arguments that consider populism as a corrective element in the quality of democracy, considering that it facilitates the inclusion of marginalized social groups, as well as side-by-side arguments that consider populism as a tool which can be considered as a positive aspect for democracy.
Exam paper. Populism, performance and affect. Mario Panadero García and Anders Hansen
Populism, performance and affect. The study of Ciudadanos and Podemos populist trades., 2018
Spain was highly affected by the 2008 global financial crisis, which had dreadful and devastating consequences for the population. The political and the social scene was in constant change. The agitation provoked a drastic rise in social movements in the country (Vicenç Navarro, 2013). The two-party political system active in Spain during its democratic period couldn’t resist this agitational climate and deep suffering that was changing the political climate for the first time since the end of the dictatorship in 1978. Therefore, this time the demonstrations and social anger provoked a breakdown in Spanish politics and gave birth to new political parties which tried to attract all the discontent and skeptical voters. The first one of them was Podemos, born directly from the 15-M movement and founded in January 2014 by a group of left-wing scholars. As kind of response to it, the Catalonian platform founded in 2006 Ciudadanos burst strongly in the political scene as right-wing alternative to Podemos, presenting themselves as “the sensible change”. (Orriols and Cordero, 2016). Both parties quickly changed completely the Spanish political landscape. In the 2015 general elections Podemos and Ciudadanos achieved 42 and 40 seats in the Parliament and occupied most of the media attention (La Información, 2015). Both parties and specially their leaders: Pablo Iglesias in Podemos and Albert Rivera in Ciudadanos can be defined as populist (Mudde, 2004). In this paper we will aim to analyze their populist discourse through specific fragments and literature which define this label, in the context of the rise of populist parties in the European politics. However, we will light the peculiarity of this case of populism, since these political actors lack the typical bad manners, bad behavior, trickster traits and colorful language that are common among the most well-known populist politicians like Trump, Hugo Chávez and Poujade (Willefordd, 1969). Despite this change of the political Spanish landscape since the birth of these two parties, the discontent of the people towards the political elites is still ongoing, and the climate of twitching and polarized attitude among the Spanish citizens is maybe even in its highest level since the beginning of the financial crisis. This situation, along with the Catalonian crisis in the last two years has facilitated the growth of VOX, a far-right party which is getting stronger every day. Former research from Catherine MacMillan have argued that the leader of Podemos is a charismatic leader (MacMillan, 2017). His appearance makes him populistic, a revolutionary, a man of the people, a godlike persona and carnivalesque (MacMillan, 2017). MacMillan in her paper also argues that Podemos have trades of populism, which shown by Cash Mudde´s research, such as his populist zeitgeist (Macmillan, 2017) (Mudde, 2004). We will therefore be using MacMillan research for a criticism towards her argumentation of Pablo Iglesias charismatic trades and we will also be criticizing her description of Podemos political strategies as carnivalistic. Although we agree with her on the line that Podemos is populist political party and uses populist rhetoric which can be supported by Cas Mudde´s Research and his theories. We will also try to explain how this populist discourse lacked the traditional trickster behavior could be the reason of the failure of Podemos and Ciudadanos in their aim of attracting the discontent citizens. We will also try to answer the question about if there is any reason which explains that this isolated case of populism has been born specifically in Spain, and if this fact has anything to do with the Spanish political and historical background.
Constellations, 1998
Populism is one of those phenomena that serve to highlight significant political differences between Europe and America. The term 'populism' was coined in America at the end of the last century to designate both a political language and a form of political participation particular to and consistent with the democratic process. The extension of this meaning to European societies without any specification can be misleading, however. In the first part of this paper I will try to explain why.
Re-conceptualizing populism: Bringing a multifaceted concept within stricter borders
2017
The word populism has been associated to (very) different meanings in the last years. The " populist " label is still used to describe parties, leaders, movements, attitudes and political regimes, too. Moreover, the adjective " populist " is used in a normative fashion in the public debate to denigrate those movements or parties which contrast the mainstream views. The aim of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, I conduct a non-normative analysis to avoid a biased vision of the concept. On the other hand, I advocate the understanding of populism as a thin-centered ideology, according to which it is based on two necessary features, namely, (a) an anti-elite(s) mindset and (b) the criticism of representative politics. Resumen El término populismo ha sido asociado a significados muy diferentes en los últimos años. La eti-queta de populista se sigue utilizando para describir partidos, líderes, movimientos, actitudes y regímenes políticos. Además, el adjetivo populista se utiliza también con una inclinación norma-tiva en el debate público para denigrar a esos movimientos o partidos que contrastan con las ideo-logías dominantes. Este artículo tienes dos objetivos principales: por un lado, desarrollo un análisis conceptual no normativo para evitar una visión sesgada del concepto. Por otra parte, abogo por una consideración del populismo como una ideología débil, según la cual se basa en dos caracte-rísticas necesarias, a saber, (a) el anti-elitismo y (b) la crítica de la política representativa. Palabras clave: populismo, política comparada, análisis conceptual, ideología débil.
Plataforma per Catalunya. The emergence of a new populist radical right party in Catalonia
The author holds a BA in Anthropology and has a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Sociology (UAB) after submitting the research project "Instrumentalization of immigration and political disaffection at the local level: the case of Plataforma per Catalunya". He is currently developing his doctoral thesis at the IGOP-UAB Master "Public policies and social transformation." His main research line is the study of the interaction between migration, urban governance and political parties.