ABSTRACT
The chapters in this section, as well as many of the chapters in this Handbook, debate the relationship between populism and democratization. Four positions can be differentiated. The first is the view of populism as democratizing, or in its more radical Laclauian formulation as synonymous with the political and democracy. Marco Damiani’s chapter on leftwing populism in southern Europe is a good example of this position. He shows how Syriza, Podemos, and France Insoumise gave political form to mass protest movements against neoliberalism. These parties aim to establish real or authentic forms of democracy, preserving the pluralism of complex societies. Their notion of the enemy, he sustains, is different from Carl Schmitt’s. Damiani concludes, “The aim of the Populist Radical Left Parties is to increase the level of social inclusion within, and not outside, the democratic system”.
