While the political transformation set into motion by the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989
promised the end of all political antagonism, populism has since then appeared on the stage
of world history as the new antagonist of democratic politics. To reformulate Karl Marx’
famous words: A new spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of populism. Addressing the
global expansion of populism, this course focuses on the evolution of populist politics in
Europe. The first part provides an overview of different contributions to the populism literature. We discuss the relationship of authoritarianism and populism, the rationality or reason behind populist politics, right-wing and left-wing variations of populism, and the question of how democratic societies can deal with populist politics. The second part focuses on different dimensions of populist politics in the European Union and individual EU members states. It consists of six case studies covering: the European Union, Hungary, Italy, France, Germany, and Poland. We discuss Europe’s populist surge with regard to common issues driving populist mobilization and country-specific characteristics of populist politics.
Coursework (Studienleistung): presentation of a case study
Examination (Prüfungsleistung): seminar paper (Hausarbeit)
Selected Literature
Stuart Hall. 1985. “Authoritarian Populism.” New Left Review 151: 115–124.
Ernesto Laclau. 2005. On Populist Reason. London: Verso, 3–20.
Cas Mudde. 2010. “The Populist Radical Right: A Pathological Normalcy.” West European Politics 33(6): 1167–1186.
Chantal Mouffe. 2019. For a Left Populism. London: Verso, 39–58.
Jan-Werner Müller. 2016. What is Populism? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 75–100.
Kim L. Scheppele. 2019. “The Opportunism of Populists and the Defense of Constitutional Liberalism.” German Law Journal 20(3): 314-331.
Kai Arzheimer and Carl C. Berning. 2019. “How the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and their voters veered to the radical right, 2013–2017.” Electoral Studies 60: 1–10.
- Lehrende/r: Felix Petersen