ABSTRACT
The term ‘populism’ tends to overshadow the debate concerning democracy and the far right. ‘Populism’ sometimes seems to be the escape route to prevent any substantial discourse about contemporary anti-democratic trends. This chapter argues that populism is a phenomenon rooted in the very concept of democracy. If democracy is defined by the competition of two or more parties or candidates for votes (Schumpeter 1950), this leads to a populist policy of appeasing the existing interests of the electorate, or of specific electoral segments. The consequence is a usually polemic language of simplified exclusion and inclusion. The question ‘Who is a populist?’ can only be answered by saying that, in a democracy, every party and every candidate running for election is, in a certain way, a populist. That means it is necessary to look for the differences between different kinds of populism.
