190708 - Populism around the World: From the Margins to the Mainstream?

 

Book Launch "Populism around the World: From the Margins to the Mainstream?" (PDF, 77 Ko)

Populism. A very short introduction (Oxford University Press, 2017) by Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser is one of the core references for the study of populism. It has been translated into Catalan, Dutch, French, Japanese, Greek, Portuguese and Thai.To salute its French translation Brève introduction au populisme (Aube, 2018) the CEE is delighted to welcome Prof. Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser for a presentation and discussion on the complex relationship between populism and democracy.

Speaker

Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser is professor of political science at Diego Portales University in Santiago de Chile. He is the author of many volumes on populism, among those, he is the co-editor, with Cas Mudde, of Populism in Europe and the Americas: Threat or Corrective for Democracy? (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and with Paul Taggart, Paulina Ochoa Espejo and Pierre Ostiguy, he has edited the Oxford Handbook of Populism (Oxford University Press, 2017). His research has been published in the journals Comparative Political Studies, Party Politics, and Political Studies, among others.

Book Abstract

Populism is a central concept in the current media debates about politics and elections. However, like most political buzzwords, the term often floats from one meaning to another, and both social scientists and journalists use it to denote diverse phenomena. What is populism really? Who are the populist leaders? And what is the relationship between populism and democracy? This book answers these questions by looking at representative populist movements of the modern era: European right-wing parties, left-wing presidents in Latin America, and the Tea Party movement in the United States. The authors delve into the ambivalent personalities of charismatic populist leaders such as Juan Domingo Péron, H. Ross Perot, Jean-Marie le Pen, Silvio Berlusconi, and Hugo Chávez. If the strong male leader embodies the mainstream form of populism, many resolute women, such as Eva Péron, Pauline Hanson, and Sarah Palin, have also succeeded in building a populist status, often by exploiting gendered notions of society. Although populism is ultimately part of democracy, populist movements constitute an increasing challenge to democratic politics.

Discussion:

Caterina Froio, Sciences Po, CEE

The event will be chaired and moderated by Caterina Froio (Sciences Po, CEE) and Jan Rovny (Sciences Po, CEE & LIEPP)

Contact: caterina.froio@sciencespo.fr 

Compulsory registration on this link - For the external people to Sciences Po: You will have to arrive 10 minutes before the beginning of the seminar and to provide you with your identity papers