Left to Right: : On the populist conception of democracy around the world
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2017-04-07
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en
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In this thesis, an alternative definition of populism is proposed and tested. Using current definitions as stepping stones, it is suggested that populism should be understood not as an ideology, but as a conception of democracy. Therefore, the principles of representative government –which in common parlance tends to be called democracy– are analysed and contrasted with what might be called the populist conception of democracy. The claim that populists use this conception is examined using six cases: the Dutch Partij voor de Vrijheid, the Spanish Podemos, the Venezuelan Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, the Peruvian Cambio 90 – Nueva Mayoriá and its successor Fuerza Popular, and the nominees for president elect for the Democratic Party and the Republic Party in the USA, senator Bernard Sanders and Donald Trump. These parties mark the dividing lines between subfields of populism studies, as they are from different continents, and from different ends of the ideological spectrum. The proposed definition should be able to bring these subfields together by defining populism as a single phenomenon.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen