The People, Populism, and The Leader’s Semi-Embodied Power

Abstract

This paper analyzes the ambiguous meanings of the concepts of “the people” and populism. It illustrates how these concepts oscillate between poles: whole and part, active and passive, threat and promise. It analyzes debates about who are the people, who speaks on their behalf, and what are their relations with democratic ideals. It explains how populism can be a conceived as a promise of democratic redemption, and simultaneously as a threat where the empty space of democracy might become occupied by a self-described redeemer of the people.