Of all “-isms” in the political science lexicon and in the journalistic discourse, populism easil... more Of all “-isms” in the political science lexicon and in the journalistic discourse, populism easily distinguishes itself from others. We usually know what’s liberalism, socialism or feminism and we are able to identify who belongs to their ideological communities. However, when it comes to populism, confusion arises to pin down the concept. Neither scholarly consensus exist for the definition of populism, nor there is a common agreement on the ideological ingredients derived from the populist perspective. Closely related, populism is often asserted pejoratively and used extremely liberally. This is to the extent that populism does not get into a debate as to what the core meanings and theories of the concept are. To be more precise, the concept of populism has long been in an intellectual torture chamber from which it could not have managed to escape yet. This is an interesting phenomenon because populism was first introduced to the vocabulary as a self-descriptive term used by the adherents of the populist movement in the United States in the late 1800s. Almost at the same time, through in a different continent, an analogous political movement emerged onto stage in Russia and the members of this ideological community called themselves ‘narodniks’. Today, there is no doubt about the term ‘narodnik’ serving as a Russian equivalent of ‘populist’ and ‘narodchivesto’ that translate as ‘populism’. Having this knowledge in mind, a prominent question arises; “how is it possible that populism has become a pejorative concept?” The answer to this question is the consideration of this dissertation. It first undertakes a profound comparative analysis of the ideologies of these two political movements. Remaining in the realm of ideological debates, it then identifies the roles of intellectuals in the pejoration of the concept of populism. With these findings, the present dissertation hopes to give an accurate account to those who dedicate their endeavors to save populism from its conceptual slipperiness and assign it a genuine meaning.
Of all “-isms” in the political science lexicon and in the journalistic discourse, populism easil... more Of all “-isms” in the political science lexicon and in the journalistic discourse, populism easily distinguishes itself from others. We usually know what’s liberalism, socialism or feminism and we are able to identify who belongs to their ideological communities. However, when it comes to populism, confusion arises to pin down the concept. Neither scholarly consensus exist for the definition of populism, nor there is a common agreement on the ideological ingredients derived from the populist perspective. Closely related, populism is often asserted pejoratively and used extremely liberally. This is to the extent that populism does not get into a debate as to what the core meanings and theories of the concept are. To be more precise, the concept of populism has long been in an intellectual torture chamber from which it could not have managed to escape yet. This is an interesting phenomenon because populism was first introduced to the vocabulary as a self-descriptive term used by the adherents of the populist movement in the United States in the late 1800s. Almost at the same time, through in a different continent, an analogous political movement emerged onto stage in Russia and the members of this ideological community called themselves ‘narodniks’. Today, there is no doubt about the term ‘narodnik’ serving as a Russian equivalent of ‘populist’ and ‘narodchivesto’ that translate as ‘populism’. Having this knowledge in mind, a prominent question arises; “how is it possible that populism has become a pejorative concept?” The answer to this question is the consideration of this dissertation. It first undertakes a profound comparative analysis of the ideologies of these two political movements. Remaining in the realm of ideological debates, it then identifies the roles of intellectuals in the pejoration of the concept of populism. With these findings, the present dissertation hopes to give an accurate account to those who dedicate their endeavors to save populism from its conceptual slipperiness and assign it a genuine meaning.
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