Post by pieter on Apr 15, 2020 17:42:58 GMT -7
Populism in Central Eastern Europe
Populism is one of the most controversial and fuzziest terms used in the social, and more specifically, political sciences. The term populism was used for the first time in the USA at the end of 19th century to describe a form of political language and a form of political participation (populist movement) - according to Urbinati (1998, 110) - specific but consistent with democracy. The majority of contemporary analysts of populism agree that the term populism is highly ambivalent, both in theory and in practice. Some have even suggested that the term not be used in the social sciences (see De la Torre, 1992, 387). Neverthe-less, the term populism is used in the social sciences with increasing frequency. However, we can find the term 'populism'being used in academic texts without ever being defined (see e.g. Boulanger 1999). This is also especially prevalent injournalism. Further, populism is seen as something undesirable, if not entirely negative, by most analysts and journalists. Labeling somebody as a populist is common both on the political right and left. Ironically, populist parties like to define themselves to be in the center, in the "main-stream". Populism is not limited geographically or culturally, although in some regions and in some periods we can notice its more pronounced or wider presence. One can find populist parties or movements and of course leaders labeled as populists in Europe, Canada (see Harrison and Krahn, 1995, Jenson and Papillon, 1998) as well as in Australia and New Zealand and the USA, not to mention many Western European countries (see Betz and Immerfall, 1998). To complicate matters even further , some authors consider Mussolini’ s fascism to have been populist (e.g. Urbinati 1998, 113), or describe the Nazi drive to power in 1920s as involving populist political discourse (Fritzsche 1990). It can be helpful to consider populism as the total opposite of liberal and repre-sentative democracy (Urbinati 1998, 116), as an attempt at popular democracy, based on appeal to and support from primary, urgent and by other political elites largely ignored needs of voters, during crisis of legitimacy of the "old" elites. This perspective will be argued in what follows. In the following argument I would like to focus on some key terms related to populism, and causes of its origin in general, especially in Central Eastern Europe and in Slovakia. Although I will try to separate analytically most important argu-ments, there still may remain significant overlap. Slovakia, which had and still has serious problems with populist politics, is an ideal case for evidence that argues "populist political culture ", as a source of populism , can and should be refused.
www.academia.edu/7978072/Populism_in_Central_Eastern_Europe?email_work_card=thumbnail
Populism is one of the most controversial and fuzziest terms used in the social, and more specifically, political sciences. The term populism was used for the first time in the USA at the end of 19th century to describe a form of political language and a form of political participation (populist movement) - according to Urbinati (1998, 110) - specific but consistent with democracy. The majority of contemporary analysts of populism agree that the term populism is highly ambivalent, both in theory and in practice. Some have even suggested that the term not be used in the social sciences (see De la Torre, 1992, 387). Neverthe-less, the term populism is used in the social sciences with increasing frequency. However, we can find the term 'populism'being used in academic texts without ever being defined (see e.g. Boulanger 1999). This is also especially prevalent injournalism. Further, populism is seen as something undesirable, if not entirely negative, by most analysts and journalists. Labeling somebody as a populist is common both on the political right and left. Ironically, populist parties like to define themselves to be in the center, in the "main-stream". Populism is not limited geographically or culturally, although in some regions and in some periods we can notice its more pronounced or wider presence. One can find populist parties or movements and of course leaders labeled as populists in Europe, Canada (see Harrison and Krahn, 1995, Jenson and Papillon, 1998) as well as in Australia and New Zealand and the USA, not to mention many Western European countries (see Betz and Immerfall, 1998). To complicate matters even further , some authors consider Mussolini’ s fascism to have been populist (e.g. Urbinati 1998, 113), or describe the Nazi drive to power in 1920s as involving populist political discourse (Fritzsche 1990). It can be helpful to consider populism as the total opposite of liberal and repre-sentative democracy (Urbinati 1998, 116), as an attempt at popular democracy, based on appeal to and support from primary, urgent and by other political elites largely ignored needs of voters, during crisis of legitimacy of the "old" elites. This perspective will be argued in what follows. In the following argument I would like to focus on some key terms related to populism, and causes of its origin in general, especially in Central Eastern Europe and in Slovakia. Although I will try to separate analytically most important argu-ments, there still may remain significant overlap. Slovakia, which had and still has serious problems with populist politics, is an ideal case for evidence that argues "populist political culture ", as a source of populism , can and should be refused.
www.academia.edu/7978072/Populism_in_Central_Eastern_Europe?email_work_card=thumbnail