Populism and the Crisis of Democracy ― Politics, Social Movements and Extremism

The contributions to this volume Politics, Social Movements and Extremism take serious the fact that populism is a symptom of the crisis of representation that is affecting parliamentary democracy. Right-wing populism skyrocketed to electoral success and is now part of the government in several European countries, but it also shaped the Brexit campaign and the US presidential election. In Southern Europe, left-wing populism transformed the classical two parties systems into ungovernable three fractions parliaments, whereas in Latin America it still presents an instable alternative to liberal democracy.

The varying consequences of populist mobilisation so far consist in the maceration of the established borders of political culture, the distortion of legislation concerning migrants and migration, and the emergence of hybrid regimes bordering on and sometimes leaning towards dictatorship. Yet, in order to understand populism, innovative research approaches are required that need to be capable of overcoming stereotypes and conceptual dichotomies which are deeply rooted in the political debate.

Gregor Fitzi is co-director of the Centre for Citizenship, Social Pluralism and Religious Diversity at University of Potsdam, Germany. After his PhD in Sociology at the University of Bielefeld, he was assistant professor at the Institute of Sociology, University of Heidelberg, Germany and held a temporary position as full professor at the University of Bielefeld. His most recent publication is The Challenge of Modernity: Georg Simmel’s Sociological Theory (Routledge, 2018).

Jurgen Mackert is Professor of Sociology and co-director of the ‘Centre for Citizenship, Social Pluralism and Religious Pluralism’ at Potsdam University, Germany. His research interests are in sociology of citizenship, political economy, closure theory, collective violence. His most recent publication is The Transformation of Citizenship (Routledge, 2017), in 3 volumes, co-edited with Bryan S. Turner.

Bryan S. Turner is Professor of the Sociology of Religion at the Australian Catholic University, Honorary Professor at Potsdam University and Honorary Fellow in The Edward Cadbury Centre, Birmingham University. In 2015 he received the Max Planck Award from the Max-Planck Society and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. He is editor of Citizenship Studies, the Journal of Classical Sociology, and the Journal of Religious and Political Practice. He is also Chief Editor of the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2017).