Contemporary populism: a controversial concept and its diverse forms

"The fundamental question uniting the contributions to this volume is: what exactly is populism? This is certainly not a new question, as a large amount of literature has focused on this topic for more than half a century. As little conceptual consensus has been reached so far, this book aims to reduce the level of abstraction. To this end, it approaches the populist phenomenon from a broader theoretical and empirical perspective, making reference to its developments on several continents."--Provided by publisher.

Introduction: Populism -- a sophisticated concept and diverse political realities / Sergiu Gherghina and Sorina Soare -- From populism to neo-populism? Empirical guidelines for a conceptual delineation / Sergiu Mişcoiu -- The "common idiot" of populism / Chantal Delsol -- The ideological components of populism / Daniel Şandru -- Foundational populism / Guy Hermet -- Populism and political science: how to get rid of the "Cinderella complex" / Marco Tarchi -- A Latin-American polemic: populism / Yann Basset and Stephen Launay -- Populism and democracy in Africa / Alexander B. Makulilo -- The facets and offshoots of populism in Sub-Saharan Africa / Emmanuel M. Banywesize -- Rednecks and watermelons: the rise and fall of populist parties in modern Australian politics / Dylan Kissane -- In the name of the people! Contemporary populism(s) in Scandinavia / Anders Ravik Jupskås -- Italy: varieties of populist leadership / Flavio Chiapponi -- Neo-populism in the post-communist zodiac / Michael Shafir -- Old and new populism in Russian politics / Mara Morini.