Populism, Ideology and Democratic Values in Latin America and the MENA Region

• In Event: Programmatic and Populist Party Structuration in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This paper presents a first glance at several new measures of the populist appeal of executives and parties from the Political Representation, Executives and Political Parties Survey (PREPPS) and offers a unique contrast of populism, its subtypes and policy content across Latin America and the MENA region. Given the dynamics of socioeconomic development of these areas of the world and in particular a crisis of popular-sector incorporation, a systematic comparison of these two regions will help to advance ongoing academic debates about populism and its relationship to democracy. Accounting for the multidimensionality of populism, the survey uses several items to address subdimensions of populism such as people-centrism, anti-elite rhetoric, and a Manichean worldview, in addition to measures that tap into policy appeals and political actors’ affinity towards democratic principles. This allows for a unique cross-regional perspective exploring the compatibility of a populist appeal with different ideologies from left to right, and their substantive policy content, such as different economic platforms (i.e. privatization, deregulation, and social spending) or positioning on societal issues. Most importantly, it allows not only for an exploration of the relationship of populism and its subtypes with democratic principles, but whether individual subdimensions of populism are in particular associated with positioning on democratic values.

Authors

• Nina Wiesehomeier, IE University

• Abdelkarim Amengay, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies