The specificity of Left-Wing Populism

Abstract

This article aims at reflecting on leftistpopulism and how this specific type ofpolitical construction could foster radicaldemocracy. We believe that leftist populism,unlike the right-wing one, is democratic inthe sense of being structurally associatedto inclusive, emancipatory discourses,while right-wing populism is based ondiscourses of exclusion. For that, the articleis divided in three main sections. First, wewill present a brief survey of current debateson the concept of populism, focusing ourattention on the work by Cas Mudde andCristóbal Kaltwasser, Margaret Canovan,and Ernesto Laclau. Here we will presentwhat we call a minimal definition of thepopulist phenomenon, which we posit asa political, antagonistic construction of apeople against its enemies. The secondsection will explore a key distinction to theunderstanding of contemporary forms ofpopulism: right-wing and leftist populism.Afterwards, we shift our focus to the analysisof contemporary experiences of leftistpopulism in order to articulate it with thenotion of ‘will of equals’, a concept we claimto be useful to the understanding of inclusiveforms of populism. Finally, we will discussthe theoretical, methodological, and ethicalconsequences of the distinction of left andright populism.