Studying the (Economic) Consequences of Populism

摘要

Pundits and academics alike are increasingly interested in populism. This is a welcome development, since not long ago research on populism was relegated to the margins of the social sciences. Among those who are starting to undertake comparative research on populism there is, however, a tendency to overlook the cumulative scholarship that has been developed on the topic. In this short piece I offer an overview of the ideational approach to populism, which is becoming increasingly influential in the political science literature and can also be useful for those interested in studying the economic consequences of populism.I. What Is Populism?Although populism is a contested concept in the social sciences, a growing number of scholars are employing an ideational definition. According to the latter, populism should be thought of as a set of ideas that considers society to be separated into two homogeneous groups, "the pure people" versus "the corrupt elite," and which argues that politics should be about respecting popular sovereignty by all means.1 This definition has three key elements.