Routledge Handbook of Global Populism: (Routledge International Handbooks)

This volume illustrates the diversity of populism globally. When seeking power, populists politicize issues, and point to problems that need to be addressed such as inequalities, the loss of national sovereignty to globalization, or the rule of unresponsive political elites. Yet their solutions tend to be problematic, simplistic, and in most instances, instead of leading to better forms of democracy, their outcomes are authoritarian. Populists use a playbook of concentrating power in the hands of the president, using the legal system instrumentally to punish critics, and attacking the media and civil society. Despite promising to empower the people, populists lead to processes of democratic erosion and even transform malfunctioning democracies into hybrid regimes. The Routledge Handbook of Global Populism provides instructors, students, and researchers with a thorough and systematic overview of the history and development of populism and analyzes the main debates. It is divided into sections on the theories of populism, on political and social theory and populism, on how populists politicize inequalities and differences, on the media and populism, on its ambiguous relationships with democratization and authoritarianism, and on the distinct regional manifestations of populism. Leading international academics from history, political science, media studies, and sociology map innovative ideas and areas of theoretical and empirical research to understand the phenomenon of global populism.

Table of Contents:
1. Global Populism: Histories, Trajectories, Problems and Challenges Part 1: Contemporary Theories of Populism 2. Populist Ideologies 3. Populist Political Strategies 4. Discourse Theories: Ernesto Laclau and the Essex School Part 2: Regional Trajectories 5. Populism in the US 6. Contemporary/21st century Populism in Europe 7. Populism in Latin America 8. Populism in Africa 9. Populists in Asia: Fighting Social Immobility or Entrenching Autocracy? 10. Populism in the Middle East Part 3: Populism and Democracy 11. Populism and Late Liberalism 12. Leftwing Populism and Democratization 13. Populism and Democracy in Europe 14. Populist Leadership, Party Institutionalisation and Democratisation in Africa 15. Populism and Democracy Part 4: Populism, Authoritarianism, Fascism 16. Populism and Trans-Atlantic Fascism 17. Postfascism and Populism in Europe 18. Populist Authoritarianism 19. Populism and Competitive Authoritarianism Part 5: The Populist Politization of Inequalities and Differences 20. Left Populism and the Politization of Neoliberal Exclusions in Latin America and Southern Europe 21. Islamic Populism and the Politization of Neoliberal Inequalities 22. Populism and Race in the US 23. Populism, Migration, and Xenophobia in Europe 24. Populism and Race/Ethnicity in Latin America 25. Ethnopopulism in Africa Part 6: Populism and the Media 17. Latin America 18. Asia, and Europe 19. Europe 20. Israel 21. Conclusion

About the Author :
Carlos de la Torre is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kentucky and Emeritus Professor at FLASCO-Ecuador. He has been a fellow at the Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. He is the author of 13 books and over 100 articles and book chapters.

Review :
"It broadens our view and provides rich material for a more empirically based debate on populism and, most of all, on the reasons for its development." Dirk Jörke, TU Darmstadt