Populism and Political Practices in Peripheral Countries

Abstract

The concept of Populism in political vocabulary became commonly used from XX Century, particularly referring to the Latin American experiences of Peronimos and Getulismo. It is a broad and undecided concept (Canovan, 1981) which firstly centred on people and its aspirations. Therefore, it is a discursive construction used by the political elite for naming popular aspirations policies and statements. Extended to new historical situations in Europe among others (Hermet, 2001), the concept has lost its heuristic value. Its application showed its limitis in the study of political speeches using the concept for self–legitimating the relationship between political elite and popular classes (Collovald, 2004). This panel proposes to revise the concept of populism from political practice in order to address two main questions. Is it possible to find the empirical evidence which allow to identify populism on political practices?, or Is Populism simply a concept used by political elites to describe themselves when their speeches and practices focus on civil society? The panel focuses on periferical countries in order to analyse political practices coming from countries with the same economical development. This panel will also address questions regarding practices which might be linked to Populism, such as clientelism. Are clientelism and authoritarianism practices linked to Populism? How those practices affect political participation?

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