Why populism is neither left nor right but anti-pluralist | Sven Gerst

In fact, when looking at political realities, it is often not at all clear where we should locate populists on the political spectrum: On the one hand, Marine Le Pen represents a socially and economically conservative agenda — which advocates against abortion and in favor of economic regulation, tariffs, and the strengthening of worker rights at the same time; on the other hand, Nigel Farage shares Le Pen’s anti-immigration stance but otherwise favors a laissez-faire capitalist system — so a socially conservative and economically liberal agenda. Similar problems arise when attempting to place political leaders, such as Rodrigo Duterte, Nicolás Maduro, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or even Donald Trump on the classical left/right spectrum. They seem to escape traditional ideological frameworks and therefore demand further conceptual clarification of the term “populism”. This talk will aim to shed light on all of this. Lecture by the philosopher Sven Gerst, PhD student at Department of Political