The two faces of populism. A map for a working definition

In spite of its sound historical roots, populism has become a catchall word, applied to many different ideologies, movements and governmental experiences. This paper takes into consideration two aspects of democracy - redemptive and pragmatic - as described by Margaret Canovan (1999), underlying the fact that populism is no longer limited to the ideology of opposition movements but has become, in many instances, an instrument of governmental power. These two aspects help us to design a conceptual map to distinguish the traditional populist environment, based on communitarian and ethnic linkages, from the individualistic mobilization typical of contemporary media-driven and charismatic populism. In this proposal for a working definition of populism, we can observe four driving directions of the map. In the first, populism appeals to people through specific class interests, if not boundaries. In most of these cases, populist ideology tends towards a violent, revolutionary upheaval. Otherwise populism can also move toward a cultural phenomenon, one in which communities are identified by their ethnic and/or territorial dimensions (nation, language, race). Here the main populist target consists of alien cultural groups, calling for outright political mobilization to restore law and order. The third direction refers to populist governments led by strong leaders: a phenomenon first developed in Latin American countries and now spreading into several newly established democracies, especially in the post-Soviet bloc. This dimension stresses the individualist aspects of the populist regime: the personal power of the president, with his main mission consisting of protecting citizens’ safety through discretionary decisions. The last direction shows the rise of media populism, also called telepopulism (Taguieff 2003), which brings together ideology and propaganda through intensive use of all sorts of media. People are, to a large extent, a substitute for - and transformed into - public opinion. Deep-rooted and complex cultural values are replaced by sudden changes in opinion moods concerning over-simplified issues. People thus become a function of popularity, and democracy - government by the people - is turned into "opinioncracy"