University of Helsinki
This work package investigates the effects of populism on democracy and the extent to which populism is democratic. The emergence of fringe populism may have democratizing effects and mainstream populism may also bring disaffected masses into politics. Conversely, populism may become authoritarian. For instance, in Turkey and the US, the two-party contests can be said to have turned into competing populisms. In other words, it becomes polarization that establishes a two-camp moral politics, this “fringe populism” may emerge in such cases as Trump and Sanders in the US, Erdoğan in Turkey or Jobbik in Hungary.
Director: Emilia Palonen