This compilation explores the significance of religion for the controversies stirred up by populist politics in European and American contexts, engaging Jewish, Christian, and Islamic political thought. Moving beyond essentialist definitions of religion, the contributions offer critical interpretations and constructive interventions for political theology today.

This condensed version of Lawrence Goodwyn's Democratic Promise, the highly-acclaimed study on American Populism which the Civil Liberties Review called "a brilliant, comprehensive study," offers new political language designed to provide a fresh means of assessing both democracy and authoritarianism today.

Populist Discourse: Recasting Populism Research offers a refreshingly innovative discourse theory perspective on populist phenomena. Reading this book will help you familiarize yourself with the historical genealogy of significant populist phenomena from the end of the 19th century onwards and with the main conceptual/theoretical accounts established to analyse them. Mainstream conceptualizations of populism in both academia and public discourse are critically discussed in order to map new, promising avenues for research. Inspired by the works of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the book addresses current challenges within populism research and highlights the new directions that a conceptually nuanced, theoretically rigorous and historically informed discursive orientation can contribute to the contemporary study of populism. Without sacrificing attention to detail, strong bibliographical support and a focus on the future development of populism research, Populist Discourse is written in accessible language to engage populism scholars, advanced undergraduates and graduate-level students within the field of political science. Due to its interdisciplinary character, it will also appeal to readers associated with various politically informed area studies and the broader field of ideology and discourse analysis.

Examining one of the most hotly debated topics in contemporary politics, media and academia, the Research Handbook on Populism brings together a diverse range of academics from across the globe to provide a detailed and comprehensive overview of the developing field of populism research.

This book explores the mechanisms and elements of populism to develop new theoretical and methodological approaches. Much as populism has been researched, it remains a contested notion without coherent definition and methodology and shaped by dimensions such as ideology, communication style, discourse, mobilization, and organization. It has simultaneously mobilized emotions, produced symbols, affected subjectivity and gender relations, and can manifest itself in different ways and appear in hybrid forms, such as in the cases of Silvio Berlusconi, Hugo Chávez, and Donald Trump. International expert contributors explore how such a variety of phenomena can be explained and analyzed, expanding the scope of populism research by proposing a multidimensional and complex understanding of populism. They argue for a greater epistemological differentiation and propose a methodology that integrates different fields of politics. This complex approach makes it possible to analyze populism as a multifaceted phenomenon and to understand how populisms affect politics and society. Aimed at postgraduates and researchers in populism as well as scholars in political science and sociology, media, communication, cultural, gender, and global studies, the volume also contributes to a better understanding of manifestations of right-wing and authoritarian populism in the twenty-first century.

Populism and Neoliberalism argues that the roots of populism lay in the contradiction between the democratic ideal, which implies that the people should decide, and neoliberal governance, which seeks to make markets and competition the arbiters of major social developments. Neoliberalism is not the product of a clearly conceived ideology but rather a set of doctrines based on a few major principles which have been embraced by decision-makers of all kinds with little reassessment along the way. In practice, a certain art of governing that exploited an economic thinking insensitive to social complexity gradually imposed itself by being wrongly identified as the successor to liberalism. The rise of populist movements poses a significant challenge to liberal democracies, yet the causes of these movements remain beyond the understanding of experts. The explanation of populism is often limited to a mere political analysis. Contrary to that, this book investigates the economic and social dynamics of the free-market system and explains how populism emerges from its imbalances. It also aims to explain the emergence of the neoliberal doctrines during the 1930s and to characterise their common features. In light of this, it explores how the rise of inequality and social discontent create a pressing duty to develop another model, and argues that we must now rethink our policies in depth in order to respond to the challenge of authoritarian populism. This book marks a significant intervention in the debate about the rise and fall of neoliberalism. Its analysis of the links between the failings of neoclassical economics and the failings of neoliberal politics provides essential reading for anyone interested in the damaging impact of neoliberalism, the failings of neoclassical economics, and explanations for the rise of populism.

Populist forces are becoming increasingly relevant across the world, and studies on populism have entered the mainstream of the political science discipline. However, so far no book has synthesized the ongoing debate on how to study the populist phenomenon. This handbook provides state of the art research and scholarship on populism, and lays out, not only the cumulated knowledge on populism, but also the ongoing discussions and research gaps on this topic. The Oxford Handbook of Populism is divided into four sections. The first presents the main conceptual approaches on populism and points out how the phenomenon in question can be empirically analyzed. The second focuses on populist forces across the world and includes chapters on Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, India, Latin America, the Post-Soviet States, the United States, and Western Europe. The third reflects on the interaction between populism and various relevant issues both from a scholarly and political point of view. Amongst other issues, chapters analyze the relationship between populism and fascism, foreign policy, gender, nationalism, political parties, religion, social movements and technocracy. Finally, the fourth part includes some of the most recent normative debates on populism, including chapters on populism and cosmopolitanism, constitutionalism, hegemony, the history of popular sovereignty, the idea of the people, and socialism. The handbook features contributions from leading experts in the field, and is indispensible, positioning the study of populism in political science.

This book analyzes the process by which Mussolini built the world’s first Fascist regime, describes how the Duce’s heirs have adapted to current political conditions, and how they have gone mainstream. With the rise of populism of the right in the new millennium, Benito Mussolini’s name has returned forcefully to the limelight. Populist movements closely resemble historical fascism, and former President Donald J. Trump has been compared to the Duce. In 2022, the 100th anniversary of the Duce’s taking power, an Italian populist party inspired by fascism took control of the country’s government led by its first woman Prime Minister. By finding in fascism their inspiration to confront the current epoch’s deep transformations, they have taken command in a major European liberal democratic country for the first time since 1945. How this occurred demonstrates the modernity and appeal of Mussolini’s fascism and offers new perspectives in interpreting populism. While the worst elements of fascism have not yet appeared in populist movements, this book conveys in clear language, a more precise awareness of the forces and values that propelled fascism to power and that drive the march of rightist populism worldwide. This volume is essential reading for students, scholars, general readers and commentators interested in European and modern history.

Right-wing militias and other antigovernment organizations have received heightened public attention since the Oklahoma City bombing. While such groups are often portrayed as marginal extremists, the values they espouse have influenced mainstream politics and culture far more than most Americans realize. This important volume offers an in-depth look at the historical roots and current landscape of right-wing populism in the United States. Illuminated is the potent combination of anti-elitist rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and ethnic scapegoating that has fueled many political movements from the colonial period to the present day. The book examines the Jacksonians, the Ku Klux Klan, and a host of Cold War nationalist cliques, and relates them to the evolution of contemporary electoral campaigns of Patrick Buchanan, the militancy of the Posse Comitatus and the Christian Identity movement, and an array of millennial sects. Combining vivid description and incisive analysis, Berlet and Lyons show how large numbers of disaffected Americans have embraced right-wing populism in a misguided attempt to challenge power relationships in U.S. society. Highlighted are the dangers these groups pose for the future of our political system and the hope of progressive social change. Winner--Outstanding Book Award, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America