Antipopulism as a Political Logic. Conceptualising the Public Debate and Discourses About Populism

Abstract

Following a boom in populism research, recently more scholars have emphasised the need to also study discourses about populism. This research shows that “populism” has always been predominantly used negatively, often to label and denounce political adversaries or newcomers. This shift in focus towards the discourse around populism has led to a surge of interest in the concept of “antipopulism”. However, despite this growing interest, there is currently no clear definition for the term “antipopulism”, and it is used to study a wide array of phenomena. This article therefore proposes to study antipopulism as a political logic, similar to the approach taken within populism research. This approach allows the study of the political content that is communicated through antipopulism, rather than treating antipopulism itself as an ideology or political project. This conceptualisation of antipopulism as a political logic is developed through a historical perspective on antipopulism and an analysis of the current literature on the subject. To demonstrate how an antipopulist political logic works in practice, the paper then discusses the results of an empirical analysis of the uses of the word “populism” in Belgian newspapers.