Populism, Anti-Establishment Politics and Representation

Abstract

2016 seems to have been the year where populism and ‘anti-establishment politics’ have truly gone mainstream. From Brexit to Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders to Rodrigo Duterte, Marine Le Pen to the 5 Star Movement, the success of populist actors and the rise of anti-establishment sentiment across the globe has often been, in both media and academic accounts, blamed on a failure on representation. Yet surprisingly little academic work has actually been done on the links between populism, anti-establishment politics and representation. Why is populism viewed in this way? What do populist and anti-establishment actors have to offer in terms of representation that ‘mainstream’ actors don’t? And what does the ‘constructivist turn’ in political representation have to tell us about the construction of ‘the people’ versus ‘the elite’? This panel invites scholars to consider such questions, and in the process open up new insights on the links between populism, anti-establishment politics and current discussions in the literature on political representation.