Populism discourse and “trouble in democracy”: a critical approach

Abstract

The chapter begins with a critique of the theoretical conceptualizations of populism. The most widely used of these, the ideational approach, attaches the populism label to politicians and movements whose democratic instincts we have little or no reason to doubt. Relying on Hannah Arendt’s distinction between a Worldly and a World-less people, we demonstrate that this is not in the best interest of democracy. We categorize populism as a discourse connected to a truthregime. Its memes include the alleged novelty of populism, the notion that populism operates from the margins of representative democracy, and a positioning of populism as the negative alter ego of liberal order. The Project Fear scenario insinuates a binary choice between staying on the straight and narrow path, and opening the door to anarchy, extremism, and chaos. Finally, populism discourse ignores hidden agenda and detracts from the core of the issue: trouble in democracy.