PSP Winter 2023

5
consequences for government formation and the
coalition choices of political parties.
Populism refers to a range of political stances that
emphasize the idea of “the people” and juxtapose
this group against “the elite.” It is frequently
associated with anti-establishment and anti-political
sentiment. Populism has roots in the thoughts of
Edmund Burke, John Locke and Adam Smith.
A common approach to defining populism is known
as the ideational approach, so called because
it emphasizes that populism should be defined
according to specific underlying ideas, as opposed
to common economic policies or leadership
styles that populist politicians sometimes display.
The core principles of idealistic or “ideational”
populism are as follows.
In ideational populism, there are two primary
units of analysis: ‘the people’ and ‘the elite.’ As
described by political analysts, ‘the people’ are
viewed as virtuous and homogenous, while ‘the
elite’ are seen as dangerous ‘others’ who attempt to
deprive the people of their rights, values, prosperity,
identity, and voice. There is an antagonistic
relationship between these two units, and the idea
of popular sovereignty—the rule of ‘the people’—
underlies this dynamic and irreconcilably divides
the parties.
Using two attempts of government formation
in Spain during 2016 as an example, Hawkins
and his co-authors show that incorporating a
populist dimension of competition alongside the
two traditional issue divides in Spain (left-right
and center-periphery) can successfully explain
agreements where approaches restricted to the two
traditional dimensions fail. Essentially, populism
forms a third, “ideational” dimension with its own content,
one that can be considered alongside strong ideological
dimensions in formal spatial analysis, and which
influences alliances among political parties.
The ideational approach does not argue that populism
overrides traditional issues and ideologies. Unlike
traditional ideologies such as liberalism, socialism, or
conservatism, populism is not consciously articulated and
speaks to only limited numbers of issues on its own. The
thin, transitory nature of populous discourse means that
it must be combined with more traditional ideologies to
have comprehensive programmatic content. Thus, there
are populists on both the right and the left, all of whom
share a similar way of framing their (very different) issue
positions.
Similarly, populism
played an important
role in determining
the outcome of the
November 2022 U.S.
midterm elections.
Election results
appear to have been
dominated by an
anti-populist majority
that rejected the rise
of global populism
for many reasons,
but mostly due to the
concern about the rise
of global authoritarianism; most populist candidates (on
the right but also the left) did poorly.
“Unlike
traditional
ideologies such
as liberalism,
socialism, or
conservatism,
populism is
not consciously
articulated and
speaks to only
limited numbers
of issues on its
own.”
Spanish elections in 2015 and 2016 necessitated either
a coalition government or a minority government with
substantive support from third parties. Populist positions
may have modulated the order of preferences of the major