Without doubt, populism is one of the challenges to contemporary democracy that has captured increasing academic and media attention in the last two decades. Up to now the discussion has been centred on the ambivalent relationship between populism and (liberal) democracy, but little has been said about the way in which actors and institutions cope with the coming into power of populist forces. Moreover, scholars have made little effort in advancing a cross-regional perspective that can contribute to generate cumulative knowledge, particularly when it comes to the question of how to deal with populists-in-government. How should established political parties react to the electoral rise of populist leaders? To what extent can foreign influences affect the path adopted by populists-in-government? It is possible to distinguish different strategies to deal with the rise of populist actors and parties, which can be seen as more or less successful from a democratic point of view? To address these questions, we are interested in writing a framework for analysis that should lead to the examination of specific manifestations of populism in different places of the world. By adopting a minimal and ideological definition of populism, the study of how to deal with populists-in-government that we are interested in developing will differentiate between strategies that target the demand for and the supply of populism. Furthermore, in line with the literature on democratisation, we will argue that the study of how to deal with populists-in-government should differentiate between the strategies adopted by domestic and external forces. Based on the identification of these two different types of strategies (strategies that target the populist demand vis-à-vis the populist supply, and strategies that are adopted by domestic vis-à-vis external forces), we will discuss the role of actors and institutions that are involved in enacting the strategies in question.
