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

Some of the basic reading comes from two sources, both available online:

• Oxford Handbook of Populism, (edited by Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, Paul Taggart, Paulina Ochoa Espejo, and Pierre Ostiguy, Oxf. University Press; OHP henceforth, available 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’ (JoD, henceforth), also available online (https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.unibo.it/journal/98 ), and in print copy in the Library

Other reading will be presented in class. Apart from the introductory class (week 1), students are expected to read material in advance

Week 1 ‘Democracy’, 21 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’, 28 September

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

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, 5 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 Populism and the media, 12 October (1^st week of students’ presentations)

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 5 Identity, religion, immigration 19 October

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 6 Intermediate exam, 26 October (different location, tbc)

In-class exam consisting in two short essays (1,000/1,500 words) to comment a recent political event, starting from a short you-tube video (2-3 mins). Students will have to assess the significance of populism in the event analysed and the way democracy deals with the populist challenge. Online sources can be consulted. Plagiarism check will take place. This mid-term exam will count as 30% of the overall evaluation (see below)

Week 7 Populism West & East, 2 November

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 Populism and Technocracy, 9 November

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. (2022). Beyond populism: The diversity of thin anti-establishment contestation in turbulent times. Party Politics, onlinefirst

 

Week 9: Populism, Euroscepticism and Sovereignism, 16 November

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. (2023). Right‐Wing Sovereignism in the European Union: Definition, Features and Implications. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, onlinefirst.

Week 10: Populists in government, 23 November

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

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 11: Populism, Nationalism and the Pandemic, 30 November

Brubaker, R. (2017) Why Populism? Theory and Society 46, 357–385.

Bieber, F. (2022). Global nationalism in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nationalities Papers, 50(1), 13-25.

Flinders, M. (2021). Democracy and the politics of coronavirus: trust, blame and understanding. Parliamentary Affairs, 74(2), 483-502.

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

Week 12, Populism and Foreign Policy, 7 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 [https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/03/there10populist10foreign10policy/typology10populist10foreign10policy.]

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

Week 13 Democracy, populism and party competition in Europe, 13 December

overview and comparative papers; reading on national case studies from:

D. Albertazzi, D. Vampa, Populism and New Patterns of Political Competition in Western Europe, London, Routledge, 2021

Wolinetz, S. Zaslove, A. (2018) Absorbing the blow, Colchester, Ecpr Press

Teaching methods

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

At the first meeting, the methods and structure of the course will be further detailed and the general concepts will be introduced. In the following weeks the meeting will focus on two hours of discussion of the assigned readings, while in the third hour links will be built with the contents of the following week, in order to direct the students' reading and the discussion to be held, starting from the papers (3,000 words each) written by the students, from the fourth week onwards.

During the first three weeks, the assignment calendar will also be built, which will be based on a critical, not merely descriptive/summary work by the students, who will have to produce two written reports (which will contribute, as detailed below, to the final evaluation).

 

Assessment methods

Students’ evalaution will be assessed on:

• quality of in class participation (10%)
• quality of the two essays written and presented in class (30% for each)
• intermediate exam (30%)

Teaching tools

Group discussion

Powerpoint presentations

Office hours

See the website of Gianfranco Baldini