210406 - Technopopulism: The New Logic of Democratic Politics with Chris Bickerton, University of Cambridge & Carlo Invernizzi Accetti, City College of New York

CEE General Seminar

Sciences Po, via Zoom, compulsory registration

Technocratic appeals to expertise and populist invocations of 'the people' have become mainstays of political competition in established democracies. This development is best understood as the emergence of technopopulism—a new political logic that is being superimposed on the traditional struggle between left and right. Political movements and actors—such as Italy's Five Star Movement and France's La République En Marche—combine technocratic and populist appeals in a variety of ways, as do more established parties that are adapting to the particular set of incentives and constraints implicit in this new, unmediated form of politics. In the first book-length treatment of the phenomenon of technopopulism, we combine theoretical and historical approaches, offering a systematic definition of the concept of technopopulism, while also exploring a number of salient contemporary examples. This book* provides a detailed account of the emergence of this new political logic, as well as a discussion of its troubling consequences for existing democratic regimes. It ends by considering some possible remedies that go beyond the simplistic idea that in the right 'dose' populism and technocracy can counter-balance one another.

Speakers:

Christopher J. Bickerton is a Reader in Modern European Politics, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge. He is also Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge and Visiting Professor, College of Europe in Bruges.

Carlo Invernizzi Accetti is an Associate Professor in Political Theory, City College of New York (CUNY). He is also Associate Researcher, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po and Visiting Associate Professor of European Politics, Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

Discussion:

Justin Ho, Sciences Po, CEE

Jan Rovny, Sciences Po, CEE & LIEPP

Chair:

Florence Haegel, Sciences Po, CEE

*Technopopulism:The New Logic of Democratic Politics. Christopher J. Bickerton, Carlo Invernizzi Accetti (Oxford University Press, 2021)

Compulsory Registration

For more information: contact.cee@sciencespo.fr