Ideology, discourse, strategy

This chapter examines the theoretical literature on populism through a thematic lens, focusing on the primary and competing theories of populism as an ideology, a discourse and a strategy, and the principal theorists associated with each. Different theories of populism are examined via different theorists’ engagement with key concepts in contemporary politics, specifically democracy, political action and the people. The chapter compares the work of Margaret Canovan, Ernesto Laclau and Benjamin Moffitt in this thematic structure to illustrate how different theories of populism connect with these concepts, and concludes by suggesting that future research into populism could be guided by deeper research into the populist understanding of the concept of the people.