The Complexity of Populism

Paula Diehl (Ph.D., Humboldt University, Berlin) is Full Professor of Political Theory, History of Ideas, and Political Culture and Director of the International Populism Research Network at Kiel University, Germany. She was Guest Professor, among others, at Sciences Po (Paris), Washington University (St. Louis), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris), and the Institute for Advanced Studies (Bologna). Her current research projects are dedicated to populism, political representation, and the concept of the political imaginary. She is the editor (with Till Weber) of the Symposium Populism: Complex Concepts and Innovative Methods, Polity, Volume 54, Number 3, July 2022. Brigitte Bargetz (Ph.D., University of Vienna) is Senior Researcher in Political Theory, History of Ideas and Political Culture and Coordinator of the International Populism Research Network at Kiel University. She was, among others, Professor of Political Theory (interim), University of Passau, Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Professor of Diversity Politics (interim), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, as well as Visiting Fellow at Charles University, Prague, and The Open University, Milton Keynes. Her current research is about affect theory, populism and democracy, and the welfare state. She is the author of Haunting Sovereignty and the Neurotic Subject: Contemporary Constellations of Fear, Anxiety and Uncertainty, Citizenship Studies, Volume 25, Number 1, 2021, 20–35.

The Complexity of Populism: New Approaches and Methods. An Introduction PART 1: Populism: A Complex Multidimensional and Gradual Phenomenon 2. Rethinking Populism in Complex Terms 3.Differentiating Populism: The Complex Constructions of the Leader and the People PART 2: Epistemological Extensions: Gender, Affects, Subjects 4.Gender as an Analytical Approach to Understanding Authoritarian Right-Wing Populism and Assessing Populism 5.Affect, Populism, Politics: Paradoxical Promises of Agency 6.Towards a Therapeutic Approach to Populism PART 3: Reflecting Populism’s Complexity: Towards a Multidimensional Methodology 7.A Global Historical Perspective on Populism 8.Observing Right-Wing Populists: A Methodological Approach in Populism Research 9.Explaining Populism from the Politolinguistic Perspective 10.Transformations of the Media Sphere: Amplifying Opportunity Structures for Populism 11.Populism by Numbers? Toward a Quantitative Morphology