| Kommentar |
Not only in Germany, but also in other European countries and other regions of the world (e.g., USA, Brazil) have populist parties recently disrupted the political system. What explains this phenomenon? What is populism? Who are the voters of populist parties? What's on the populist agenda? And what are the consequences of populism for democracy? These are some of the questions this introductory-level course seeks to answer. The current developments around the Alternative for Germany (AfD) will be analyzed in a comparative manner taking other Western European countries as well as the US into context. The focus will be on the populist radical right, although we may briefly discuss other forms of populism as well (see, e.g., Zullianello 2019 for an overview). The seminar will discuss 'older', i.e. more classical texts (such as the ground-breaking work by Mudde 2004, 2007) as well as new developments concerning the populist radical right (such as climate change denial). In short: This course seeks to provide students with an introductory-level (no prior knowledge of the topic required) overview of the most important topics of populism research. |
