Populism, Mudde argued, is more than just demagogy or opportunism. Because, in Mudde’s definition, populism is always piggybacking on other ideologies, the wide variety of populisms isn’t a problem. Both thinkers have directly informed the new European left populist movements, including Syriza, Podemos and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise. And then politics – real politics, which is to say populist politics – make a return. The order of the day, in their view, is to convince citizens to recommit to liberal democracy and its institutions.

Source: The Guardian January 10, 2019 06:00 UTC