Democracies and the Populist Challenge

Populism has become a favourite catchword for mass media and politicians faced with the challenge of protest parties or movements. It has often been equated with radical right leaders or parties. This volume offers a different perspective and underlines that populism is an ambiguous but constitutive component of democratic systems torn between their ideology (government of the people, by the people, for the people) and their actual functioning, characterised by the role of the elites and the limits put on the popular will by liberal constitutionalism.

Author: Y. Meny, Y. Surel
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Published: 12/06/2001
Pages: 258
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 8.80h x 5.78w x 0.85d
ISBN: 9780333970041

About the Author
HANS-GOERG BETZ Associate Professor of Political Science, York University, Toronto MARGARET CANOVAN Professor of Political Thought, University of Keele HERBERT P. KITSCHELT Professor of Political Science, Duke University PETER MAIR Professor of Comparative Politics, Leiden University CAS MUDDE Lecturer, Department of Politics, University of Edinburgh WOLFGANG C. MÜLLER Professor of Political Science, University of Vienna YANNIS PAPADOPOULOS PAUL TAGGART Lecturer in Politics and Jean Monnet Lecturer in Contemporary European Studies, University of Sussex MARCO TARCHI Associate Professor of Political Science and Political Communication, University of Florence ALAN WARE Professor of Politics, University of Oxford