Mikkel Flohr

Project title

Populism and its Discontents: Towards a Genealogy of Anti-Populism

What is your project about?

My research project is about populism. Populism seems to be everywhere, yet there is intense debate about what the concept actually means. My project focuses on anti-populism as the key to grasping what we talk about when we talk about populism. Populism is rarely a label people use about themselves; it is primarily a negatively label applied to others. The project therefore examines populism as a product of anti-populism: the construction of a range of political ideas, discourses and practices as a coherent phenomenon and democratic problem that we know as “populism.” The project investigates the history and development of anti-populism and, on that basis, develops a new understanding of populism and its relationship to democracy.

How did you become interested in your particular field of research?

The idea for my project first developed when I was working on a research project about the history and development of the concept of “the people” at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster. It struck me as fundamentally paradoxical that populism – a concept derived from the Latin populus meaning people – is presented as a threat to democracy. This sparked my interest in how the concept of populism emerged historically and developed into a negatively charged label. At the same time, I became interested in the democratic implications of stigmatising political movements as anti-democratic simply because they claim to speak in the name of the people and challenge established elites.

What are the scientific challenges and perspectives in your project?

The fundamental challenge is to move beyond the static conceptual disputes that have long characterized the literature on populism, towards a historically grounded and critical understanding of the concept of populism. To this end, the project combines history and political theory. It focuses especially on three key moments in the development of the concept: debates about the People’s Party – the original “populists” – among American historians in the 1950s and 1960s, the first international conference on populism at the London School of Economics, and the so-called “populist hype” from 2015 onwards. This can give us a better understanding of how populism has historically been constructed as a coherent phenomenon and democratic problem, and of the political consequences that it may have today.

What is your estimate of the impact, which your project may have to society in the long term?

Populism is not just an academic concept. It is also a central part of contemporary public debate, where it is often used to single out certain political actors and portray them as  demagogues, irrational mobs, and threats to democracy. This risks stigmatizing popular mobilisations, movements, and parties and thereby increasing political polarisation in society. Here, the project may contribute to a more nuanced understanding of what we mean by populism. The aim is not to defend populism as such. There are also authoritarian and anti-democratic movements that fall under this label that can and should be criticized. The point is that such serious accusations must be based on concrete analyses of their politics – it is not enough simply to identify them as populists. In the long term, I hope the project can contribute to a more nuanced and inclusive conversation about democracy and populism.

Which impact do you expect the Sapere Aude programme will have on your career as a researcher?

The Sapere Aude grant is a major advance in my career and marks my transition from independent researcher to research leader. It allows me to bring together and further develop my research on populism, political theory and the history of ideas in a new and potentially ground-breaking research project. With the grant, I can establish a small, focused research group with two postdocs and a strong international network that will carry out the project and help set a new agenda. The project will not only strengthen my international profile, but also give me essential experience as the leader of a collective research project.