1st Edition
Is There Such a Thing as Populism? 3 Provocations and 5 1/2 Proposals
Is There Such a Thing as Populism? calls into question our common understanding of populism. Taken on their own, commonplace references to the people, leaders, or elites are more like dog whistles or false positives of populism than part of a serious attempt to address the phenomenon. Scholars asked themselves, “What is populism?” without realizing that this assumed there was such a thing and that we just needed to figure out what it meant. That was a mistake. Benjamin Arditi proposes that we put this certainty on hold and start from a different premise, asking, “Is there such a thing as populism?” This doesn’t rule out its existence or take it for granted.
Structured as a set of polemical interventions and theoretical proposals, Arditi addresses key theoretical, methodological, and comparative questions in the study of populism. These include the limitations of formal definitions of populism, the importance of context and the conjuncture, polemics, the situated gaze, and issues concerning strategic relations and governing from below. Five subject experts, Nadia Urbinati, José Luis Villacañas, Carlos de la Torre, Anthoula Malkopoulou, and Anthony Spanakos, react to Arditi’s theses in captivating conversations on how to study populism and the way in which populism has been used in contemporary comparative analysis. Refreshingly different and thought-provoking, Is There Such a Thing as Populism? is the ideal departure for the exploration of this diverse and fascinating political movement.
Preface: From the Question “What is Populism?” to the Premise “Is There Such a Thing as Populism?”
Part 1: Framing the Issue
1. Anomalies, Crises, Zombie Ideas, Provocations, and Proposals. An Introduction to what it means to ask whether there is such a thing as Populism
2. The Endless Search for Populism
Part 2: Polemicizing Populism
3. Provocation 1: Goodbye to Populism
4. Provocation 2: Use Populism to Accuse or Disqualify Adversaries
5. Provocation 3: Peronism and its Contemporaries were Populists. What Came Later was
Not
Part 3: Methodological Proposal
6. Proposal 1: The Limits of Formalism: Ernesto Laclau and Populism
7. Proposal 1½: Differentiation needs Normative Claims
8. Proposal 2: Context-sensitivity and the Conjuncture: The Ideational Claim that Salvador Allende was a Populist.
9. Proposal 3: Polemicizing the Populist Commonplace
10. Proposal 4: The Perspective of Situated Observers
11. Proposal 5: Strategic Relations and Governing from Below
12. Epilogue: Is Populism a Promise that Lives at the End of a Rainbow?
Part 4: Responses to the Book
13. Nadia Urbinati
14. José Luis Villacañas
15. Carlos de la Torre
16. Anthoula Malkopoulou
17. Anthony Spanakos
18. Benjamin Arditi
Biography
Benjamin Arditi is Professor of Political Theory at the National University of Mexico, UNAM. He is the author of Politics on the edges of liberalism: difference, populism, revolution, emancipation (Edinburgh 2007). He co-edits the book series Taking on the Political published by Edinburgh University Press. His research focuses on political insurgencies, populism, and illiberal politics.
"Arditi is an established scholar, who has gained an international reputation through his interventions in a variety of debates, among them for his critical engagement with discourse theory and with the take on populism initiated by Ernesto Laclau and the so-called Essex School. His work is always well-organised and challenging as well as witty, enabling a refreshing critical hermeneutic of the issues at stake. These constant characteristics of Arditi’s work are also markedly present in Is There Such A Thing As Populism? making it a rewarding reading."
Yannis Stavrakakis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
"Benjamin Arditi, one of the most creative thinkers on populism, makes a welcome return to the topic in this book, offering a startling challenge - what if there is no such thing as populism? Even if you disagree with his conclusions, this book will force you reassess your deeply-held assumptions about populism - making it a must-read."
Benjamin Moffitt, Australian Catholic University
"Have we reached the point where the concept of populism describes everything and nothing? In this book, Benjamin Arditi asks whether populism exists at all. He shows that once we accept that it may not, we discover new horizons of politics. Insurgent, inflammatory, always thought-provoking, this book should be read by all those seeking alternatives to the hackneyed duo: 'populism or democracy?"
Paulina Ochoa Espejo, University of Virginia
