Article contents
Resisting the ‘populist hype’: a feminist critique of a globalising concept
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 September 2019
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to offer a feminist critique of populism, not as a distinct mode of politics, but as an analytical and political concept. As such, it seeks to redirect our attention away from populism, understood as a politics ‘out there’, towards the academic theoretical debates that have given this analytical term a new lease of life and propelled it beyond academic circles into the wider public discourse. In this context, the article develops two broad arguments. The first is that the two prevailing conceptions of populism are marred by anaemic conceptions of power, collective agency and subjectivity and, as such, are unable to present us with a convincing account of why this form of radical politics emerges in the first place, who its protagonists are, and how they come together in collective struggle. The second is that our current frenetic deployment of the term as a blanket descriptor for radical politics of all persuasions does not bode well for feminism politically. For both reasons, I conclude that feminists need to resist the current ‘populist hype’.
Keywords
- Type
- Review Article
- Information
- Review of International Studies , Volume 45 , Special Issue 5: Special Issue on Populism , December 2019 , pp. 768 - 785
- Copyright
- Copyright © British International Studies Association 2019
References
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84 McKean, ‘Towards an inclusive populism?’, p. 816.
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89 This literature focuses on the incredible influence that Laclau's theory of populism has had on certain streams of left-wing politics in Spain (Podemos) and Greece (Syriza). See Stavrakakis and Katsambekis, ‘Left-wing populism in the European periphery’ and Kioupkiolis, Alexandros, ‘Late modern adventures of leftist populism in Spain’, in Katsambekis, Giorgos and Kioupkiolis, Alexandros (eds), The Populist Radical Left in Europe (New York: Routledge, 2019), pp. 47–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
90 While both definitions explored here have gained media coverage, it is Mudde's conception of populism that has gained the most prominence in media and political discourses.
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92 Bice Maiguashca and Jonathan Dean, ‘Corbynism, populism and the re-shaping of left politics in contemporary Britain’, in Katsambekis and Kioupkiolis (eds), The Populist Radical Left in Crisis-Hit Europe.
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99 John Judis, ‘Us vs. them: the birth of populism’, The Guardian, available at: {https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/13/birth-of-populism-donald-trump}.
100 Rooduijn, Matthijs and Akkerman, Tjitske, ‘Flank attacks: Populism and left–right radicalism in western Europe’, Party Politics, 23:3 (2017), pp. 193–204CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
101 See Mudde and Kaltwasser, ‘Exclusionary vs. inclusionary populism’ and Santiago Zabala on ‘The difference between left and right wing populism’, Al-Jazeera (17 January 2017), available at: {https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/01/difference-left-wing-populism-170112162814894.html}.
102 This reaction is somewhat puzzling given that Mudde, the authoritative voice on populism, lists the tyranny of ‘centrism’ as one of the main causes of the populist upsurge.
103 Fraser, ‘Progressive neoliberalism versus reactionary populism’, pp. 281–4. For an excellent analysis of the emergence and politics of the populist/anti-populist divide, see Stavrakakis, Yannis, ‘“The return of the people”: Populism and anti-populism in the shadow of the European crisis’, Constellations, 21:4 (2014), pp. 505–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
104 Remember that those working within the Muddean frame have paid far more attention to the right-wing populism than to its left counterpart.
105 Jonathan Dean, ‘Who's Afraid of Identity Politics?’, LSE blog, available at: {http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/whos-afraid-of-identity-politics/}.
106 See, for example, Mudde and Kaltwasser, ‘Populism’.
107 Stavrakakis, Yannis and Jäger, Anton, ‘Accomplishments and limitations of the “new” mainstream in contemporary populism studies’, European Journal of Social Theory, 21:4 (2018), pp. 547–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
108 See Mudde and Kaltwasser, ‘Studying populism in comparative perspective’. As an example of this general lack of care and engagement, they point out that neither Brexit nor Trump's victory in the US elections can meaningfully be conceptualised as a form of populism, at least not in their definitional terms. This has not prevented both events being framed as such by most academic, media, and political commentators.
109 While those in the Laclau camp cannot be described as empiricists/positivists in any fashion, they have tended to cede ground to their political science colleagues and have joined the search for minimal definitions that lend themselves to empirical analysis. In other words, in an effort to engage with their Muddean counterparts, many now implicitly treat populism as an ontic force, rather than a discursive logic. See Stavrakakis et al., ‘Extreme right-wing populism in Europe’ for an explicit effort in this direction.
110 Evidence of the gendered nature of populism studies can be found in the table of contents of the recently published Online Oxford Handbook of Populism in which only six female contributors (one writing on the role of gender in populism) are featured out of a total of 38. Recognising and seeking to rectify the lack of visibility of women in the field, the ‘Women+ on Populism Research’ Facebook group was set up in October 2018 as was an LSE blog advertising the work of female scholars on populism (equated on this site with far-right politics). See {https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2019/03/05/reading-list-10-recommended-reads-on-the-far-right-and-populism/}. More anecdotally, my own experiences at numerous workshops and conferences on populism also suggest that female scholars, let alone feminist ones, are few and far between in this burgeoning field. For example, the ECPR Joint Sessions in Pisa in 2016 on the ‘Causes of Populism’, to which I was kindly invited, boasted 28 participants of which only four were women, with one being my co-author. Of course Margaret Canovan, Chantal Mouffe, and Nadia Urbinati, all political theorists, are three notable exceptions to this trend.
111 Katsambekis, Giorgos and Stavrakakis, Yannis, ‘Populism, anti-populism and European democracy: a view from the South’, Open Democracy (2013)Google Scholar, available at: {https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/populism-anti-populism-and-european-democr/} accessed 14 June 2019.
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