The populist cat-dog: applying the concept of populism to contemporary European party systems

Abstract

Populism is a frequently used yet problematic concept; the term is often ill-defined and randomly applied. While these problems have been widely acknowledged, this article argues that there are still issues with the way populism tends to be used, even if a sound definition is provided. This relates to the fact that it is often not clear whether populism is used to refer to an ideological feature of an exclusive category of political parties or whether populism is seen as a type of discourse which can be expressed by any political actor. In order to illustrate the difficulties with regard to the application of the term populism, several ‘hard’ cases of populism across Europe are discussed. The article argues that in order to stimulate a more accurate use of the term, observers should be explicit not only about the meaning of populism, but also about the form in which it manifests itself.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the editor of this journal and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions. In addition, I would like to thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for its support during the latest stages of the work on this article.

Notes

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^8. C. Mudde and C. Rovira Kaltwasser, ‘Exclusionary vs. inclusionary populism: comparing contemporary Europe and Latin America’, Government and Opposition, 48(2) (2013), p. 149.

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^12. Ionescu and Gellner, op. cit., Ref. 11; Mudde, op. cit., Ref. 11; Albertazzi and McDonnell, op. cit., Ref. 11; Abts and Rummens, op. cit., Ref. 11.

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^15. Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser, op. cit., Ref. 8, p. 154.

^16. See also M. Canovan, Populism (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981).

^17. Mudde, op. cit., Ref. 11; Abts and Rummens, op. cit., Ref. 11; Stanley, op. cit., Ref. 13; Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser, op. cit., Ref. 8.

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^20. Taggart, op. cit., Ref. 11; P. Taggart ‘Populism and representative politics in contemporary Europe’, Journal of Political Ideologies, 9(3) (2004), pp. 274–275.

^21. M. Canovan, ‘Trust the people! Populism and the two faces of democracy’, Political Studies, 47(1) (1999), p. 4.

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^23. Stanley, op. cit., Ref. 13, p. 100.

^24. C. Mudde, Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

^25. Weyland, op. cit., Ref. 14, p. 12.

^26. H.-G. Betz, ‘Conditions favouring the success and failure of radical right-wing populist parties in contemporary democracies’, in Y. Mény and Y. Surel (Eds.) Democracies and the Populist Challenge (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002), p. 198.

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^28. Jagers and Walgrave, op. cit., Ref. 27, p. 322.

^29. Mudde, op. cit., Ref. 11, pp. 542–563.

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^31. Sartori, op. cit., Ref. 5, p. 248.

^32. See Bale et al., op. cit., Ref. 1.

^33. Sikk, op. cit., Ref. 6, p. 1.

^34. Jagers and Walgrave, op. cit., Ref. 27.

^35. This approach is also adopted in other contributions. See Weyland, op. cit., Ref. 14; Sikk, op. cit., Ref. 6; Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser, op. cit., Ref. 8.

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^38. Collier and Mahon, op. cit., Ref. 9.

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^40. Goertz, op. cit., Ref. 37, pp. 7, 45.

^41. Mudde, op. cit., Ref. 11, p. 544.

^42. Mudde, op. cit., Ref. 11, pp. 543–544; Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser, op. cit., Ref. 8, p. 152.

^43. Sartori, op. cit., Ref. 5, p. 248.

^44. Stanley, op. cit., Ref. 13, p. 108.

^45. See, for example, Mudde, op. cit., Ref. 24

^46. Pauwels, op. cit., Ref. 30.

^47. T. Pauwels, ‘Explaining the success of neoliberal populist parties: the case of Lijst Dedecker in Belgium’, Political Studies, 58(5) (2010), pp. 1009–1029.

^48. Pauwels, op. cit., Ref. 30, p. 110.

^49. M. Tarchi, ‘Italy: a country of many populisms’, in D. Albertazzi and D. McDonnell (Eds.) Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European Democracy (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008), p. 93.

^50.Ibid., p. 86.

^51. C. Ruzza and S. Fella, Re-inventing the Italian Right: Territorial Politics, Populism and ‘Post-Fascism’ (Oxon: Routledge, 2009), p. 131.

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^53. Ruzza and Fella, op. cit., Ref. 51, p. 40.

^54. See, for instance, M. Goodwin, New British Fascism: The Rise of the British National Party (Oxon: Routledge, 2011).

^55. See the 2005 general election manifesto of BNP: British National Party, Rebuilding British Democracy (Welshpool: BNP, 2005), p. 9.

^56.Ibid., p. 53.

^57.Ibid., p. 3.

^58. N. Copsey, ‘Changing course or changing clothes? Reflections on the ideological evolution of the British National Party 1999–2006’, Patterns of Prejudice, 41(1) (2007), pp. 61–82.

^59. See, for instance, P. Hayes, Fascism (London: Allen & Unwin, 1973); S. Payne, Fascism. Comparison and Definition (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1980); R. Griffin, The Nature of Fascism (Oxon: Routledge, 1993).

^60. Albertazzi and McDonnell, op. cit., Ref. 11, p. 3.

^61. Griffin, op. cit., Ref. 59, p. 41.

^62. See Canovan, op. cit., Ref. 21, pp. 2–16; cf. Abts and Rummens, op. cit., Ref. 11, pp. 405–424.

^63. L. March and C. Mudde, ‘What's left of the radical left? The European radical left after 1989: decline and mutation’, Comparative European politics, 3(1) (2005), p. 35.

^64.Ibid., p. 36.

^65. S. de Lange and M. Rooduijn, ‘Een populistische Zeitgeist in Nederland? Een inhoudsanalyse van de verkiezingsprogramma's van populistische en gevestigde politieke partijen’, in R. Andeweg and Jacques Thomassen (Eds.) Democratie Doorgelicht, het functioneren van de Nederlandse democratie (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2011), p. 324.

^66. P. Lucardie, ‘The Netherlands: populism versus pillarization’, in D. Albertazzi and D. McDonnell (Eds.) Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European Democracy (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008), p. 154; G. Voerman and P. Lucardie, ‘De sociaal-democratisering van de SP’, in F. Becker and R. Cuperus (Eds.) Verloren Slag. De PvdA en de verkiezingen van november 2006 (Amsterdam: Mets and Schilt/Wiardi Beckman Stichting, 2007), pp. 139–164.

^67. See, for example, Rooduijn et al., op. cit., Ref. 30.

^68. See, for instance, Taggart, op. cit., Ref. 11; Mény and Surel, op. cit., Ref. 2; R. Heinisch, ‘Success in opposition—failure in government: explaining the performance of right-wing populist parties in public office’, West European Politics, 26(3) (2003), pp. 91–130.

^69. See, for example, Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser, op. cit., Ref. 8.

^70. D. Albertazzi and D. McDonnell, ‘The lega nord in the second berlusconi government: in a league of its own’, West European Politics, 28(5) (2005), p. 953.

^71. A. Zaslove, ‘The populist radical right in government: the structure and agency of success and failure’, Comparative European Politics, 10(4) (2012), p. 431.

^72. Mudde, op. cit., Ref. 24, p. 41.

^73. Deegan-Krause and Haughton, op. cit., Ref. 30.

^74. See C. Mudde, ‘In the name of the peasantry, the proletariat, and the people: populisms in Eastern Europe’, in Y. Mény and Y. Surel (Eds.) Democracies and the Populist Challenge (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 214–232; M. Minkenberg, ‘The radical right in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe: comparative observations and interpretations’, East European Politics and Society, 16(2) (2002), pp. 335–362.

^75. P. Učeň, ‘Parties, populism, and anti-establishment politics in East Central Europe’, SAIS Review, 27(1) (2007), pp. 49–62.

^76. Sikk, op. cit., Ref. 6.

^77. See, for instance, A. Szczerbiak, ‘Poland's unexpected political earthquake: the September 2001 parliamentary election’, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 18(3) (2002), pp. 41–76.

^78. R. Markowski, ‘The polish elections of 2005: pure chaos or a restructuring of the party system?’ West European Politics, 29(4) (2006), p. 820.

^79. B. Stanley, Populism in the Polish Party System: Party Appeals and Voter Mobilization (Doctoral diss., University of Essex, Colchester, 2010), pp. 233–234.

^80. See F. Millard, Democratic Elections in Poland, 1991–2007 (Oxon: Routledge, 2010), pp. 135–136.

^81. See A. Szczerbiak, ‘“Social Poland” defeats “liberal Poland”? The September-October 2005 Polish parliamentary and presidential elections’, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 23(2) 2007, p. 212.

^82. Sartori, op. cit., Ref. 7, pp. 1033–1053.

^83. See Collier and Mahon, op. cit., Ref. 9; Goertz, op. cit., Ref. 37.

^84. See P. Mair, ‘Concepts and concept formation’, in D. Della Porta and M. Keating (Eds.) Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 190.

^85. Mudde, op. cit., Ref. 24, pp. 29–30.

^86. See S. van Kessel, Supply and Demand: Identifying Populist Parties in Europe and Explaining Their Electoral Performance (DPhil diss., University of Sussex, Brighton, 2011).

^87. T. Pauwels, ‘Belgium: Decline of National Populism?’, in K. Grabow and F. Hartleb (Eds.) Exposing the Demagogues. Right-wing and National Populist Parties in Europe (Brussels: CES-KAS, 2013), p. 86.

^88. D. McDonnell, ‘Silvio Berlusconi's personal parties: from forza Italia to the popolo della libertà’, Political Studies, 61(S1) 2013, pp. 217–233.

^89. See S. van Kessel, ‘A matter of supply and demand: the electoral performance of populist parties in three European countries’, Government and Opposition, 48(2) 2013, pp. 175-199.

^90. Hawkins, op. cit., Ref. 30; Deegan-Krause and Haughton, op. cit., Ref. 30; Pauwels, op. cit., Ref. 30, p. 101; Rooduijn et al., op. cit., Ref. 30, p. 3.

^91. See Rooduijn et al., op. cit., Ref. 30, p. 2.

^92. See Mair, op. cit., Ref. 84, pp. 190–191.

^93. Goertz, op. cit., Ref. 37, p. 34.