ABSTRACT
As testified by the arrival of Donald Trump to the United States presidency in 2017, populism has reached a global momentum. Populism is also growing in Europe as shown by the unexpected Brexit outcome. The success of populism in Europe is not a new phenomenon that comes almost unexpectedly. Populism in Europe can be traced back to previous waves. Like in America, European populism has raised the banner of returning political power to the people. Its present pervasive success is the outcome of a movement that began decades ago. My aim in this chapter is to discuss if the populist promise of returning power to the people leads to an improvement of democracy or, on the contrary, to sheer authoritarianism.
