just coming up with isms for the fun of it now It is an excellent book if you wish to go beyond the intellectual shortcuts offered by the media outlets and gain an understanding of current political developments, both in Europe and in the US.
Written in simple language yet offering a comprehensive analysis of contemporary populism, Most importantly, it is nonjudgmental but very objective and balanced when summarising the main features and characteristics of populism, Among too many publications on this subject, this one is wholeheartedly recommended, Σύντομο, διαφωτιστικό, συγκεκριμένο, ευκολοδιάβαστο, σαφές και περιεκτικό. Προφανώς, δεν εξαντλεί το θέμα, άλλωστε συστήνεται ως συνοπτική εισαγωγή. Δίνει όμως απαντήσεις σε υπάρχοντες προβληματισμούς για την ελληνική κοινωνία και την παγκόσμια κοιντητα, ενώ συνδράμει στη δημιουργία νέων. I found this very useful, clarifying a concept batted about in the press with clear definitions, concrete examples, a book structure that is both theoretical and practical Does populism help or hurt democracy What are good responses to populist appeals when they are inappropriate, and even a clear guide to perspectives on populism different from the authors' preferred paradigm.
It made understandable to me what Le pen and Chavez have in common, and helped me understand why some US voters could support both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.
While it is a great introduction to further reading the VSI books always have a good "for further reading section, thesepages alone provided me with a better framework for understanding populism in politics today.
The analytical chapters were compelling, with a frightening explanatory power for what's going on in the world today, Sadly, as often seems to be the case with these things, the "solution" chapter seemed exceptionally weak beer, A suggestion that 'rather than assuming a priori that populists are wrong liberal democracies should examine the extent to which the proposed policies have merit within a liberal democratic regime' seems not just wrong but downright offensive in a week when the news has been dominated by immigrant children being seperated from their parents and detained in a decaying walmart.
Finally I have located a well developed set of concepts that can be deployed to make Trumpism understandable, For one small example, Trump's insistence that he had a 'yuge electoral majority except for the millions of illegal votes' supports two parts of a populist agenda: enhancing the claim of "speaking for the people", and heightening the sense of crisis that would allow "action in opposition to established institutions" in this case especially the media.
But don't believe me, read it yourself, This is a good Very Short Introduction, I've been plowing through them, You see I find myself in a position in life I haven't been in since I was, I don't have a job and I'm not in school, NEET. I tried to find work for a bit after leaving school in the pandemic, but I'd say that at the last week of October I decided to stop for a bit and focus on other non making money stuff.
To be honest I'm quite a bit embarrassed about this, I'm also more so worried about how this will look to my future employer hopefully the United Methodist Church, I'm fortunate to live with my parents, but I'mso that is weird, I'd also be working if I weren't living here, So idk. I'm losing a lot of money paying for stuff but also, I'm not paying rent or utilities which is helpful, So i can't tell. Especially since if I were to go to my old job which I love, which I can't do, I'd pay rent and then I'd still make more money.
My hope was to find something online, I will recommit to that on Friday, But I took some time off from that because it sucked to just read and play guitar, In that sense I feel like I did the summer after Freshman year which was the last time I didn't have a job really, Well that and the period of time right after college before I moved to New York,
So these are interesting times, And it is weird. i move back in with my parents three big times, One after college. One right before seminary, and one right now, And it is interesting. Im sorry did you want a review on this book
I'm just trying to remember all the books I read because fuck it, I just like reading. I went to high school and I had to read fiction all the time and fiction other than Kurt Vonnegut kinda blows, Although I am into Romantic Hockey stories,
Anyway, this book was helpful, Doesn't talk about Trump. I'm reading it in conjunction with a few things, But with regards to very short introductions, this one is readable, I think VSTs the books not the edm thing really shine when they are about philosophy or something like that, I like some of the science ones, But sometimes i find those to not have a big theme throughout or they still feel impenetrable, For example Reptiles started strong, but then it delineated all the different types of Reptiles, I'd say that some of those chapters were skippable because they didn't help paint a picture of reptiles generally, Although those chapters are obviously interesting since you get to learn about new reptiles,
Growing up in an interfaith family with tendencies coming from civil war type areas, I really do appreciate the idea of being apolitical, In some ways I am sort of a sycophantic centre left centrist, But this was an interesting book and useful for thinking about, I'm really struggling with Denial of Death by Ernest Becker which gives me more understanding of it, Every page is hard for me to read, It is not as hard as Ricoeur but still, This is breezy. Anyway Excellent introduction to the main features of populism!
Looking at the diverse elements of demand for and supply of populism, the short study shows the different factors that trigger a populist movement, most often around a charismatic leader claiming to be speaking directly to the "people", while opposing an elitist political establishment.
Populism exists in various forms, and is not linked to a specific political conviction, but rather to the cultural circumstances within the society where it occurs.
It is a method for a certain kind of challenge to perceived privileges within the power structure of a country, and states the right of the majority of voters to actively participate in and change the political landscape.
Mostly against pluralism, elitism and liberal democracy in general, and working with simplistic, emotionally affected language, populists position themselves as outsiders in order to generate a direct link
between themselves and their supporters.
They play with vocabulary that suggests they speak "honestly" about "topics people care about", and "against privileges", even when their own background does not support that narrative, thus supplying a perceived direct connection to political action that many people long for in struggling democratic societies.
The essay does not focus on one single populist, but weighs different political players against each other, comparing their approaches and successes, Thus the farright populists in Europe are analysed side by side with farleft South American politicians and entrepreneurpopulists in the United States, This approach is helpful to understand the bigger picture, the general commonalities in the strategies of populist players, By using a comparative argument, rather than a current case study, the root of the problem is shown, What are the general deficiencies in a specific society which make the rise of a populist possible and desirable to many voters The answer lies within the political landscape of the specific society, of course, and has different socioeconomic causes in different parts of the world.
Populists often raise the right questions and give them the wrong answers, as the author puts it at one point, Listening to the angry questions, and giving them better answers, is the challenge for a pluralist society, in order to protect itself from populist undermining or breakdown in the worst case.
A very informative, worthwhile read and a perfect complement to other social studies concerned with our era of threatened liberal democracy, .