81771 - Democracy and Populism in Europe

Learning outcomes

The course aims to give a thorough understanding of the changing nature of democracy in Europe, mainly as a consequence of the rise of populism, in its various forms. At the end of the course, students will be able to grasp the correct use of the concept of populism, as well as to understand the meaning of the rise of euroscepticism.

Course contents

The course is organized according to the model of the Structured Seminar. In the first three meetings, the fundamentals of the course will be introduced, with a comparative focus on the concepts of democracy, populism and on the meaning of their analysis in the European context. During these first three meetings, the calendar for the presentation of the students' papers will be defined for the following 10 weeks. As detailed below, each student will have to write and present two essays, and to actively participate in class throughout the course. Participation in the course requires that students come to class having already read the assigned material.

For exchange students (Erasmus, Turing, Overseas, …), the course is open exclusively to students enrolled in Master’s level degrees

Readings/Bibliography

PRELIMINARY READING

Students who have no previous knowledge of European politics should read:

1) T. Bale, European Politics. A comparative introduction, Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2018, ch. 4-7

2) V. Anghel, E. Jones (eds.). Developments in European Politics 3, Bloomsbury Academic, 2022, ch. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14

3) E. Jones, M. Hedberg (eds.) Europe Today, A Twenty-First Century Introduction, Rowman and Littlefield, 2023

Most of the reading can be found online:

• Oxford Handbook of Populism, (OHP, edited by Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, Paul Taggart, Paulina Ochoa Espejo, and Pierre Ostiguy, Oxf. University Press; disponibile online, https://www-oxfordhandbooks-com.ezproxy.unibo.it/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198803560.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780198803560 and in print copies in the Library, OHP henceforth).
• And in the ‘Journal of Democracy’, available online (https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.unibo.it/journal/98 ).
• More info in class. Material should be read before each meeting

Week 1 Democracy and the Populist challenge 18 September

W. Galston (2018) The Populist Challenge to Liberal Democracy, 29 (2), 5-19

Merkel, W. (2014). Is there a crisis of democracy? Democratic Theory, 1(2), 11-25.

P. Graziano, M. Quaranta (2022). Studying Democracy in Europe: Conceptualization, Measurement and Indices. Government and Opposition, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2022.39

JoD (Journal of Democracy):

Gorokhovskaia, Y. et al. (2023) The Freedom House Survey for 2022: A Turning Point for Global Freedom? n. 2, 105-119

Week 2 Populism in comparative perspective, 25 September

Art, D. (2022) The myth of global populism. Perspectives on Politics, 20(3), 999-1011.

Carrión, J. F. (2025). Populism and democracy: What we know and don’t know. Political Science Quarterly. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/psq/qqaf054

Mudde, C. (2021). Populism in Europe: an illiberal democratic response to undemocratic liberalism, Government and Opposition, 56(4), 577-597.

N. Urbinati, (2019) Political Theory of Populism, Annual Review of Political Science 22:1, 111-127

OHP:

C. Mudde, Populism: an ideational approach

C. de la Torre, Populism in Latin America

Week 3: Democracy, Populism and Illiberalism in Europe, 2 October

P. Corduwener, (2017) Integrating contemporary populism with the history of democracy in Western Europe, European Political Science, vol. 16, 206-216

Kriesi, H. (2020). Is there a crisis of democracy in Europe? Politische vierteljahresschrift, 61, 237-260.

Vachudova, M. A. (2021). Populism, democracy, and party system change in Europe. Annual Review of Political Science, 24, 471-498.

Pirro, A. L., & Stanley, B. (2022). Forging, bending, and breaking: Enacting the “illiberal playbook” in Hungary and Poland. Perspectives on Politics, 20(1), 86-101.

Zulianello, M. (2020). Varieties of populist parties and party systems in Europe: From state-of-the-art to the application of a novel classification scheme to 66 parties in 33 countries. Government and Opposition, 55(2), 327-347.

Week 4 First in-class assessment, 9 October

In 45 minutes, students will respond to two open-ended questions, writing on paper, 2-sided A4, one side for each answer (laptop not allowed). The assigment counts for 20% of the overall evaluation (see below)

Week 5 Democracy, Populism and the media, 16 October (1st week of students’ presentations, group A)

Selecting from the following material, each student of group A will make a 15-min presentation relating the weekly topic with an empirical case study (from Europe) agreed in advance (structure to be followed in following weeks), exercise counts for 10% of overall assessment

L. Manucci, Populism and the media, OHP

Lorenz-Spreen, P., Oswald, L., Lewandowsky, S., & Hertwig, R. (2023). A systematic review of worldwide causal and correlational evidence on digital media and democracy. Nature human behaviour, 7(1), 74-101.

S. Waisboard, (2018) The elective affinity between post-truth communication and populist politics, Communication Research and Practice, 4(1), 17-34.

B. Moffitt (2015) How to Perform Crisis: A Model for Understanding the Key Role of Crisis in Contemporary Populism, Government and Opposition, 50(2), 189-217

Week 6 Identity, religion, immigration, 23 October (student group B)

Zuquete, J.P. Populism and Religion, OHP [for students who read Italian see also L. Zanatta, Il populismo gesuita. Laterza 2020]

Dennison, J., & Geddes, A. (2019). A rising tide? The salience of immigration and the rise of anti‐immigration political parties in Western Europe. The political quarterly, 90(1), 107-116.

Brubaker, R. (2017). Between nationalism and civilizationism: The European populist moment in comparative perspective. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(8), 1191-1226.

Marcinkiewicz, K., & Dassonneville, R. (2022). Do religious voters support populist radical right parties? Opposite effects in Western and East-Central Europe. Party Politics, 28(3), 444-456.

[Selected chapters from: Saving the people: how populists hijack religion / Nadia Marzouki, Duncan McDonnell, Olivier Roy (editors), London: C. Hurst & Co. Ltd., 2016]

Week 7 East and West comparison, 30 October (student group C)

OHP:

P. Taggart, Populism in Western Europe, B. Stanley, Populism in Eastern Europe

Huijsmans, T. (2023). Place resentment in ‘the places that don’t matter’: explaining the geographic divide in populist and anti-immigration attitudes. Acta Politica, 58(2), 285-305.

Orenstein, M. A., & Bugarič, B. (2022). Work, family, Fatherland: the political economy of populism in central and Eastern Europe. Journal of European Public Policy, 29(2), 176-195.

Ananda, A., & Dawson, J. (2023). Cultural liberalism in Eastern and Western Europe: a societal antidote to democratic backsliding? Journal of European Public Policy, 1-24.

Week 8 Second in-class assessment, 6 November

In 45 minutes, students will respond to two open-ended questions, writing on paper, 2-sided A4, one side for each answer (laptop not allowed). The assigment counts for 25% of the overall evaluation (see below)

Week 9 Populism and Technocracy, 13 November (student group A)

C. Bickerton, C. Invernizzi-Accetti, Populism and technocracy, in OHP

Caramani, D. (2017) ‘Will vs. Reason: The Populist and Technocratic Forms of Political Representation and Their Critique to Party Government’, American Political Science Review, 111, 54–67.

Emanuele, V., Improta, M., Marino, B., & Verzichelli, L. (2023). Going technocratic? Diluting governing responsibility in electorally turbulent times. West European Politics, 46(5), 995-1023.

Pytlas, B. (2023). Beyond populism: The diversity of thin anti-establishment contestation in turbulent times. Party Politics, 29(4), 648-660.

Week 10: Populism, Euroscepticism and Sovereignism, 20 November (students group B)

Brubaker, R. (2020), Populism and Nationalism, Nations and Nationalism, 1, 44-66

Taggart P. & Szczerbiak, A. (2018) Putting Brexit into perspective: the effect of the Eurozone and migration crises and Brexit on Euroscepticism in European states, Journal of European Public Policy, 25:8, 1194-1214

Treib, O. (2021). Euroscepticism is here to stay: what cleavage theory can teach us about the 2019 European Parliament elections. Journal of European public policy, 28(2), 174-189.

Van Kessel, S., Chelotti, N., Drake, H., Roch, J., & Rodi, P. (2020). Eager to leave? Populist radical right parties’ responses to the UK’s Brexit vote. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 22(1), 65-84.

Fabbrini, S., & Zgaga, T. (2024). Right‐wing sovereignism in the European Union: Definition, features and implications. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 62(2), 341-359.

Week 11: Populists in government, 27 November (students group C)

Askim, J., Karlsen, R., & Kolltveit, K. (2021). Populists in Government: Normal or Exceptional? Government and Opposition, 1-21. doi:10.1017/gov.2021.30

Baldini, G. Giglioli, M. (2020), Bread or Circuses? Repoliticization in the Italian Populist Government Experience, Government and Opposition, vol. 56: 3, 505-524

Brubaker, R. (2020) Paradoxes of Populism during the Pandemic, Thesis Eleven, 164(1), 73-87.

Schwörer, J. (2022). Less populist in power? Online communication of populist parties in coalition governments. Government and Opposition, 57(3), 467-489.

Vittori, D. (2022). Threat or corrective? Assessing the impact of populist parties in government on the qualities of democracy: A 19-country comparison. Government and Opposition, 57(4), 589-609.

Peters, B. G., & Pierre, J. (2019). Populism and public administration: Confronting the administrative state. Administration & Society, 51(10), 1521-1545.

Week 12 Third in-class assessment, 4 December

In 45 minutes, students will respond to two open-ended questions, writing on paper, 2-sided A4, one side for each answer (laptop not allowed). The assigment counts for 30% of the overall evaluation (see below)

Week 13, Populism and Foreign Policy (and wrap up), 11 December

Verbeek, B and Zaslove, A. 'Populism and Foreign Policy', in OHP

Chryssogelos, A. 2021. “Is There a Populist Foreign Policy?” Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 202, March 30, 2021, https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/03/there-populist-foreign-policy/typology-populist-foreign-policy

Destradi, S., Cadier, D., & Plagemann, J. (2021). Populism and foreign policy: a research agenda (Introduction). Comparative European Politics, 19(6), 663-682.

Comparative European Politics SPECIAL ISSUE https://link.springer.com/journal/41295/volumes-and-issues/19-6

Kaltwasser, C. R., & Taggart, P. (2025). Populism and democracy: The road ahead. PS: Political Science & Politics, 58(1), 96-100.

Teaching methods

The course is organized according to the model of the Structured Seminar.

The first meeting will further detail the course modalities and structure. As detailed above, a schedule of oral presentations by students will be prepared, complementing the discussions on the various topics scheduled each week.

Assessment methods

Student assessment will be based on the weekly reading list detailed above:

- first in-class assignment (20%)

- second in-class assignment (25%)

- third in-class assignment (30%)

- two 15-minute PowerPoint presentations (10%)

The remaining 5% serves as a supplement/rounding-off and also assesses participation in class discussions.

Office hours

See the website of Gianfranco Baldini