Populismus - Aufklärung - Demokratie

‘Populism’ unites different political positions and strategies that can’t be summed up in a concept which clearly encapsulates all those heterogeneous phenomena. The contributions in this volume therefore address a strategic space in which analyses of populist movements also locate themselves. They, too, take a stance on the problem of democratic representation when they deal with the populist reference to the ‘people’. Social conflict scenarios and the problems of democratic legitimation strategies and functional processes must be taken into account when discussing the populist challenge. This makes critical positioning or the appeal to an enlightened form of rationality difficult: they remain entangled in problems of authorisation and representation; they refer to justifications which presuppose that common ground which threatens to be lost; and they themselves must be wary of the emotions and resentments that they criticise.

With contributions by
Floris Biskamp, Tino Heim, Cornelia Koppetsch, Jürgen Link, Ralf Mayer, Kolja Möller, Karin Priester, Alfred Schäfer, Astrid Séville, Fabio Wolkenstein