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Introduction

Recognition of the People

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2023

Christian F. Rostbøll
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
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Summary

The Introduction presents the main idea of the book, namely that populism should be understood and assessed in terms of the kind of recognition for the people that it demands. The debate over the meaning and value of populism is fundamentally a debate over how democracy should recognize the people. Many people in contemporary societies feel disrespected and populism provides the recognition that they feel they have lost or never attained. The populist politics of resentment should not be understood as blindly emotional but as a struggle for recognition based on moral experiences that can be explained by people’s beliefs and principles. However, not all struggles for recognition contribute to the deepening of democracy, and we must distinguish between different kinds of recognition in order to understand why populism is often a threat to democratic principles and practices. The Introduction explains that the book is a study of the reasons people may have for supporting populism rather than the causes of populism. As a corollary of studying reasons rather than causes, populism is defined as a set of claims that can be assessed for their validity. The last part of the Introduction provides an overview of the book.

Type
Chapter
Information
Democratic Respect
Populism, Resentment, and the Struggle for Recognition
, pp. 1 - 21
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Introduction
  • Christian F. Rostbøll, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: Democratic Respect
  • Online publication: 16 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009340854.001
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  • Introduction
  • Christian F. Rostbøll, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: Democratic Respect
  • Online publication: 16 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009340854.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Christian F. Rostbøll, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: Democratic Respect
  • Online publication: 16 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009340854.001
Available formats
×