The Populist Tradition: A Critical-Historic Approach - Déborah Cohen

The Populist Tradition: A Critical-Historic Approach offers a new approach to studying “populism”, treating it not as a negative, but as a concept that demands popular participation in democracy, whether self-organised or representative.

Leading specialists in democratic populism from around the world and across disciplines come together to reconnect present-day populism with its past to grasp the anti-democratic roots of the current critique of populism to better redefine it. Historically, they seek to counter the current unanimity on the antidemocratic nature of populism’s origins with examples that show its historic ambivalence and democratic radicalism. Sociologically, they draw on past examples and concepts to understand current movements and regimes. This excursus into the forms of democratic populism in Western and non-Western societies, today and in the past, allows us to formulate several hypotheses about the presence or absence of the demos in contemporary democracies. They demonstrate, from their examination of this tenacious political phenomenon, the ways in which the people can intervene in post-democratic societies.

This crucial reappraisal is recommended for scholars in history, political sciences and sociology, as well as anyone interested in revisiting populism’s historical trajectories and socio-political dynamics.