While initially contained to the margins of politics, the new prominence of populists in government presents new challenges to a broader range of fields beyond classic political science. We invite scholars working on the emerging cases of populism and public policy, to understand how populists and populist regimes interact with governing processes. We invite papers working on populism from across the political spectrum and world, seeking to build our collective understanding of this global phenomenon, and in particular, scholars using advanced methods or examining new aspects of populism, such as emerging transnational networks and collaboration (Ramos and Torres, 2020).
We seek to draw together a diverse range of scholars from various disciplines and regions focusing on, broadly, public policy and populism. Firstly, there is a need to deepen the connections between public policy and/or administration concepts and theories and empirical case studies related to populism, for instance by applying theories of the policy process to better understand the shifting dynamics of policy change in contexts shaped by populists (Bauer, 2023; James, forthcoming). Secondly, as the electoral success of populists translates into enhanced power and influence in governing systems, such actors expand their ability to shape policy and patterns of governance beyond those issues over which they enjoy ‘ownership’. For example, we now better understand the consequences of radical right populists in shaping economic or social policy and policy-making and how such approaches manifest in multi-level contexts (Ausserladscheider, 2023; Paxton, 2022). Enhancement in these areas may come from other areas of political science, such as political communication or political economy. Thirdly, while substantial progress has been made in understanding these trends in Global North countries (Gattinara and Pirro, 2019; McDonnell and Werner, 2018), there remains ample opportunity to expand this further in both these countries and into the Global South. This is an opportune moment to bring together scholars examining populism both from diverse regions and, importantly, transnationally to deepen our understanding of how it manifests in the Global South and what unique challenges or patterns are emerging (Mesarovich, forthcoming; Ramos and Torres, 2020).
Ausserladscheider, V. (2024). Far-Right Populism and the Making of the Exclusionary Neoliberal State. London: Palgrave.
Bauer, M. W. (2023). Public administration under populist rule: Standing up against democratic backsliding. International Journal of Public Administration, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2023.2243400
Castelli Gattinara, P., & Pirro, A. L. P. (2018). The far right as social movement. European Societies, 21(4), 447–462.
Dussauge-Laguna, M. I. (2022). The promises and perils of populism for democratic policymaking: The case of Mexico. Policy Sciences, 55(4), 777-803.
McDonnell, D., & Werner, A. (2018). Respectable radicals: Why some radical right parties in the European Parliament forsake policy congruence. Journal of European Public Policy, 25(5), 747-763.
Mesarovich, A. (Forthcoming). Learning to drive backwards: Understanding radical right-wing populist policy diffusion. Journal of European Public Policy.
Paxton, F. (2020). Towards a populist local democracy? The consequences of populist radical right local government leadership in Western Europe. Representation, 56(3), 411-430.
Pirro, A. L., & Stanley, B. (2022). Forging, bending, and breaking: Enacting the “illiberal playbook” in Hungary and Poland. Perspectives on Politics, 20(1), 86-101.
Ramos, J. M., & Torres, P. (2020). The right transmission: Understanding global diffusion of the far-right. Populism, 3, 87-120.
1: How do populists use power when they have it?
2: How can public policy and administration theories be more effectively applied to empirical case studies of populism?
3: How do populists influence policy and governance both within and beyond their core issues once they attain influence?
4: Is there a populist policy style? What are its features?
5: How are populists shaping policy and policymaking in Global South and transnational settings?
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| Sunshine after the storm? Reversing Democratic Backsliding in European Democracies: the cases of Poland and the United Kingdom |
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| “Sovereigntists not Globalists”: Transnational Networks and Populist Radical Right Diffusion |
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| Recognition against Autocratization |
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| Influence of Populism on the EU Accession Process: Case of Serbian Progressive Party |
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| Populism, Variants of Populism and Penal Populism |
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| A question of the underlying social contract? About the differentiated impact of populism on policy-making in proportional and in majoritarian democracies |
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| The ‘Mother of all Reforms’? Understanding the proposal for the introduction of the direct election of the Prime Minister in Italy during the Meloni government |
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| Populism as political ontology, ideology and democratic indetermination: An interpretative approach based on Ernesto Laclau, Cas Mudde and Pierre Rosanvallon theoretical-conceptual formulations |
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| Populism’s Added Value: Comparing Foreign Policy Votes and Speeches in Czech and Slovak Parliaments |
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| Right-Wing Populist Re-Politicization and the “Hollowing Out” of the Neoliberal State |
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| Defending the 'Right' Education: Far-Right Populism and Anti-Genderism in Latin America |
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| The unvirtuous circle of populism, authoritarianism, policy failure, and problem definition |
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| Populist style |
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| Western Fatigue? The influence of the Russian invasion on far-right parties in Europe |
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| Exploring the Environmentalism of Right-Wing Populist Governments: The Cases of Hungary and Turkey |
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