‘Void’ democrats? The populist notion of ‘democracy’ in action
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In: Party Politics, Vol. 31, No. 1, 01.2025, p. 72-85.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘Void’ democrats? The populist notion of ‘democracy’ in action
AU - Schwörer, Jakob
AU - Koß, Michael
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2023.
PY - 2025/1
Y1 - 2025/1
N2 - Populism is often seen as a threat to liberal democracy because of its rejection of constitutional constraints and emphasis on popular sovereignty. Others argue that populism is a corrective to mainstream politics and not necessarily anti-democratic. While the relationship between populism and democracy is widely debated in theory and empirically assessed by estimating the effect of populist rule, we analyse discursive references to democracy in election manifestos and tweets of populist radical right (PRRP) and populist radical left (PRLP) parties in seven Western European countries. By mapping populists’ discourses on democracy across electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative and egalitarian dimensions, we find that PRLP elaborate a more coherent understanding of democracy (especially its participatory and egalitarian dimensions) and do not reject any dimension. PRRP hardly elaborate on any dimension except participation. PRRP appear as ‘void’ democrats with ambivalent and incoherent credentials, which at times reject and instrumentalise democracy.
AB - Populism is often seen as a threat to liberal democracy because of its rejection of constitutional constraints and emphasis on popular sovereignty. Others argue that populism is a corrective to mainstream politics and not necessarily anti-democratic. While the relationship between populism and democracy is widely debated in theory and empirically assessed by estimating the effect of populist rule, we analyse discursive references to democracy in election manifestos and tweets of populist radical right (PRRP) and populist radical left (PRLP) parties in seven Western European countries. By mapping populists’ discourses on democracy across electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative and egalitarian dimensions, we find that PRLP elaborate a more coherent understanding of democracy (especially its participatory and egalitarian dimensions) and do not reject any dimension. PRRP hardly elaborate on any dimension except participation. PRRP appear as ‘void’ democrats with ambivalent and incoherent credentials, which at times reject and instrumentalise democracy.
KW - Politics
KW - Western Europe
KW - content analysis
KW - democracy
KW - political parties
KW - populism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85171278494&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/2d019652-b64e-31e7-a025-2057b2a3db63/
U2 - 10.1177/13540688231200992
DO - 10.1177/13540688231200992
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 31
SP - 72
EP - 85
JO - Party Politics
JF - Party Politics
SN - 1354-0688
IS - 1
ER -