Populism and civil society
The researchers argue that populism is gaining attention in both academic and political debates, and that recent definitions of populism generally agree in conceiving the focus of populism as an attempt to bypass the electoral process and thereby not to establish a direct link between ‘the people’ and the decision-making power. They specify, that the research will “contribute a corrective to the perhaps over-optimistic view on the link between civil society and democracy that is associated with Putnam’s work and with much of the early work on the transition from one-party rule to democracy in Eastern Europe”. Academic research, as emphasized by the CINEFOGO researchers, can shed light on ongoing developments in the political discourse that seems highly topical in most European countries. The research under this work package furthermore aims at addressing a number of rather controversial issues, such as the rise of ‘uncivil society’ as well as populist reactions to globalization.
Countries
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom