WP29 Responsible

[UNITN-24] - University of Trento, Department of Sociology and Social Research (Trento)

WP29 Responsible for Spread of Excellence

[UNITN-24] - University of Trento, Department of Sociology and Social Research (Trento)

WP29 Objectives

1. To clarify how populism relates to civil society. This will be discussed in relation to:
1. empirical cases in a variety of European countries
2. populist parties of both the (extreme) right, the center, and the left
2. To examine the link between civil society and democracy and, more specifically, how and when ‘bad civil society’ is formed, and what effects it has for European politics.

WP29 Description of work

Populism has recently received a great deal of academic attention and several definitions of the concept have been proposed. They generally agree in seeing as the central focus of populism an attempt to bypass the electoral process and establish a direct connection between ‘the people’ and political power. The people is seen as a self-evident entity -- an homogeneous constituency whose aspirations are betrayed by corrupt political elites. In order to establish a direct connection and bypass electoral representation, populists might enrol the help of an inspired charismatic leader who is attuned to the wishes of ‘the people’. Often however they also recur to intermediate associations who can channel the views of particular professions, trade associations and civil society organizations to the political process and can therefore help and support the chosen charismatic leader. The role of civil society associations is therefore one of alternative or additional political representation. Hypothetically, this strategy to form and link to a large variety of organizations has been particularly important for populist movements in countries in which the demise of traditionally dominant institutions have created a vacuum in civil society.

In focusing on ‘bad civil society’, and as a corollary on what has been called ‘sour social capital’, this work package will contribute a corrective to the perhaps over-optimistic view on the link between civil society and democracy that is associated with Putnam’s works and with much of the early work on the transition from one-party communism to democracy in Eastern Europe.

These processes will be examined in the context of a set of extremist right-wing parties – but not only extreme right-wing parties. Unlike most earlier research on this subject this work package will emphasize that all contemporary populist parties are not right-wing extremist.

WP29 Participants

• [UNITN-24] - University of Trento, Department of Sociology and Social Research (Trento)
• [SU/SCORE-38] - Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research (Stockholm)
• [SCP-27] - The Social and Cultural Planning Office (Den Haag)

WP29 Documents

For documents of this work package, please go to CINEFOGO Outcomes Database and type WP29 in the Search field.