Opposing populism in Europe: Diverse strategies, multi-level actors, effectiveness of responses

Abstract

Populist parties are increasingly successful in virtually every European country. They often win power at home and govern alongside others in the European’s Union’s complex machinery of shared sovereignty. Populist autocrats legitimize their rule with the appeals to popular sovereignty in regular electoral contests. Hence, those opposing populist parties often swim in muddier waters than in the past, necessarily navigating more complex questions about whether populists deepen or threaten democracy. The proposed panel presents research findings on how those who oppose populist parties (in government or opposition) respond to them given the two paradigms of protecting democracy: militant and tolerant. We also consider how to effectively respond to populist policies and instruments that undermine the values and practice of liberal democracies. The proposed panel presents the findings of the interdisciplinary research project Populism and Democratic Defence in Europe, funded by the Carlsberg Foundation's Challenges for Europe project. We present both empirical data systematically mapping opposition to different types of populist parties by a wide range of national, transnational and international opponents of populism. Using an approach inspired by the analysis of protest events, we collected data from national newspapers on the forms of opposition to the mix of ruling and opposition, left and right wing populist parties. From the perspective of normative political theory, we also analyze whether it is possible to respond to populists effectively and legitimately, that is, in such a way as not to undermine the democratic norms and principles one wishes to defend.

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