Political Populism

Populism represents the greatest political challenge to Western democracies since World War II. The electoral successes of populist parties and actors, Brexit, the presidency of Donald Trump or campaigns against containing the coronavirus pandemic are expressions of this phenomenon, in which the electorate is mobilised against supposed elites. The revised and expanded handbook Political Populism offers a comprehensive theoretical and empirical introduction to the causes and effects of political populism, especially in the democratic systems of Europe, but also in North and South America. It focuses on explaining populism as a consequence of a legitimation crisis of the representative system as well as on the controversies and limitations in the current academic debate. Drawing on political and communication science, the book also offers a comprehensive analysis of the effects of populism on various policy areas, such as environmental, health and economic policy. With contributions by Tjitske Akkerman, Manuel Anselmi, Wolfgang Aschauer, Hans-Georg Betz, Cecilia Biancalana, Paul Blokker, Giuliano Bobba, María Esperanza Casullo, Carlos de la Torre, Paula Diehl, Sarah C. Dingler, Martin Dolezal, Marco Fölsch, Flavia Freidenberg, Sergiu Gherghina, Fabian Habersack, Vlastimil Havlík, Kirk A. Hawkins, Reinhard Heinisch, Christina Holtz-Bacha, Robert A. Huber, Gilles Ivaldi, Philip Kitzberger, Benjamin Krämer, Maria Elisabetta Lanzone, Zoe Lefkofridi, Dietmar Loch, Miroslav MareS, Alfio Mastropaolo, Oscar Mazzoleni, Sergiu Miscoiu, Teun Pauwels, Franca Roncarolo, Saskia Pauline Ruth, Carlo Ruzza, Steven Saxonberg, Christian H. Schimpf, Damir Skenderovic, Sorina Soare, Lone Sorensen, Carlos H. Waisman, Carsten Wegscheider and Sandra Vergari. With a welcome expansion in cases and policy fields, the second edition of Political Populism: Handbook on Concepts, Questions and Strategies for Research brings together scholars from a range of disciplines to reflect on the fundamental