The rise of populism and the new cleavage

Abstract

While populism tends to be a short-term phenomenon that is typically, but not exclusively, linked to contingent economic and social crises, it may also be triggered by long-term processes of societal change, which take shape in a new structural cleavage that is first expressed by new challenger parties. Initially, such parties may not only express grievances linked to the new cleavage but may also appeal to populist tropes. This review of the literature of populism argues that the populism of contemporary radical right challengers is of this second type. It is best conceived as a secondary phenomenon, essentially fuelled by a new structural cleavage that opposes them to the Greens and to the left more generally. As such, contemporary populism is likely to be temporary, fading away as the new challengers become an integral part of the re-aligned party systems.