This upper-level course will focus on contemporary populism and populist politics, which currently challenge Western liberal democracies and their party systems. While populism as a political style or ‘thin’ ideology is not limited to parties and actors classified as “populist,” populist parties and movements have seen a dramatic rise in popularity and electoral support in recent years. The seminar explores the nature and dynamics of this political phenomenon, the origins and causes of populist politics--as well as the conditions for its success. Situating the rise of various populist parties and movements in a comparative European,  American and global context, the course will examine parties, cases, issues, cross-national similarities, variations--and implications of populist politics and the rise of populist parties. In search for explanations of what Cas Mudde has aptly called the “populist Zeitgeist” and the current transformation of political landscapes in Western democracies, we will also take broader socio-cultural changes and conflicts within Western societies into account—looking beyond party systems, platforms, and elections.

The course provides, first, a theoretical framework and different methodological approaches to the study of populism. The second and third week are dedicated to empirically exploring the rise of populism and populist parties in domestic, European, and global contexts, and understanding distinct, often partly context-dependent factors enabling this rise and variations of success--such as specific cultural legacies; lack of trust in parties and political institutions; the migration crisis; the Great Recession; or trends of political polarization. Special attention is paid to the distinct North American, Latin American, Western, Eastern and Southern European political environments. In the fourth week, the course will compare and contrast the different cases, and draw comparative conclusions from different methodological perspectives. This section will also explore broader socio-cultural conflicts and dimensions, including transformed conditions of political communication in the age of social media, that engender the increased cross-national cultural attraction of populist parties and actors in the globalized age. In the fifth and final week, implications for liberal democracy and policy responses to the populist challenge will be explored.

This course exposes students to the long marginalized but increasingly relevant field of populism and populist politics, which are currently unsettling Western democracies. In the seminar  students will discuss relevant empirical, theoretical and methodological scholarly texts on populism in a variety of ways, i.e. small groups discussions, readings questions and group presentations. In the course of the seminar, students will also work on their own research designs and draft versions of their research paper in and outside of class. During in-class peer review sessions and plenary discussions about common research bottlenecks and problems students will receive feedback on their research design and draft texts. By the end of the block students will get time to process the feedback given by the lecturer and their peers and finalize the final version of their research paper.

Students will:

familiarize with cutting edge scholarship on populism;

develop their methodological competences in political science;

develop their own applied research skills on a pressing subject of global politics and contemporary political science;

advance their critical thinking competences in relation to empirical and normative challenges of populism and (il)liberal democracy today.

DETAILED SYLLABUS: