The Vices and Virtues of “Populisms”

Philippe C. Schmitter

doi:10.6092/issn.1971-8853/9391

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Philippe C. Schmitter Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute, Florence http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6911-3842
Philippe C. Schmitter is now Emeritus Professor of the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute. He has been professor at the Politics Department of the University of Chicago, then at the European University Institute (1982–1986) and at Stanford (1986–1996). He has published books and articles on comparative politics, on regional integration in Western Europe and Latin America, on the transition from authoritarian rule in Southern Europe and Latin America, and on the intermediation of class, sectoral and professional interests. In 2009, Schmitter won the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, the ECPR Lifetime Achievement Award by the European Consortium for Political Research in 2007, the EUSA Award for Lifetime Achievement in European Studies by the European Union Studies Association in 2009, and the Mattei Dogan Prize awarded by the International Political Science Association (IPSA) in 2009.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/9391

Keywords:

Democratic Virtues, Populism, Party Organizations, Real-Existing Democracy, Social Movements

Abstract

In this short essay, I will try to define contemporary populism in a “neutral” fashion; and to explore its virtues, as well as its (much better known) vices. To conclude, I shall attempt to draw up a balance sheet between its contrasting contributions to contemporary political life in Europe. To accomplish this, I will have to speak “generically” and, therefore, to ignore or set aside the traits populism has had and the outcomes it has produced in specific cases. I begin with the (hazardous) position that it can be good or bad for democracy… depending. And I will finally try to address the issue of the conditions under which it is more likely to harm or benefit the polity in which it has emerged.

The Vices and Virtues of “Populisms”

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