B6178 - DEMOCRACY AND POPULISM IN EUROPE

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

The course aims to give a thorough understanding of the changing nature of democracy in Europe, mainly as a consequence of the rise of populism, in its various forms. At the end of the course, students will be able to grasp the correct use of the concept of populism, as well as to understand the meaning of the rise of euroscepticism

Contenuti

 

Il corso adotta una modalità di organizzazione della didattica secondo il modello del seminario strutturato. Nei primi tre incontri si introdurranno i fondamenti del corso, con un focus comparato sui concetti di democrazia, populismo e sul significato della loro analisi nel contesto europeo. Durante questi primi tre incontri si definirà il calendario di presentazione dei paper degli studenti per le successive 10 settimane. La partecipazione al corso richiede che gli studenti si presentino a lezione avendo già letto il materiale assegnato.

Per gli studenti in scambio (Erasmus, Turing, Overseas), l’insegnamento è aperto solo agli iscritti a corsi di studio di livello magistrale.

Testi/Bibliografia

Letture preliminari. Gli studenti che non hanno mai studiato la politica europea in chiave comparata dovrebbero almeno leggere, prima dell'inizio del corso:

1) T. Bale, European Politics. A comparative introduction, Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2018, ch. 4-7

2) V. Anghel, E. Jones (eds.). Developments in European Politics 3, Bloomsbury Academic, 2022, ch. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14

3) E. Jones, M. Hedberg (eds.) Europe Today, A Twenty-First Century Introduction, Rowman and Littlefield, 2023

Una buona parte del materiale introduttivo si trova in due risorse, entrambe disponibili online:

• Oxford Handbook of Populism, (OHP, curato da Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, Paul Taggart, Paulina Ochoa Espejo, and Pierre Ostiguy, Oxf. University Press; disponibile online, https://www-oxfordhandbooks-com.ezproxy.unibo.it/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198803560.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780198803560 and in print copies in the Library, OHP henceforth).
• E nel ‘Journal of Democracy’, disponibile online (https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.unibo.it/journal/98 ).
• Il syllabus sarà presentato in classe. Le letture andranno fatte prima di ogni incontro settimanale.

Week 1 ‘Democracy’, 19 September

W. Galston (2018) The Populist Challenge to Liberal Democracy, 29 (2), 5-19

Merkel, W. (2014). Is there a crisis of democracy? Democratic Theory, 1(2), 11-25.

P. Graziano, M. Quaranta (2022). Studying Democracy in Europe: Conceptualization, Measurement and Indices. Government and Opposition, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2022.39

JoD (Journal of Democracy):

Gorokhovskaia, Y. et al. (2023) The Freedom House Survey for 2022: A Turning Point for Global Freedom? n. 2, 105-119

Week 2 ‘Populism’, 26 September

Art, D. (2022) The myth of global populism. Perspectives on Politics, 20(3), 999-1011.

Mudde, C. (2021). Populism in Europe: an illiberal democratic response to undemocratic liberalism, Government and Opposition, 56(4), 577-597.

N. Urbinati, (2019) Political Theory of Populism, Annual Review of Political Science 22:1, 111-127

OHP:

C. Mudde, Populism: an ideational approach

C. de la Torre, Populism in Latin America

Week 3: Democracy, Populism and Illiberalism in Europe, 3 October

P. Corduwener, (2017) Integrating contemporary populism with the history of democracy in Western Europe, European Political Science, vol. 16, 206-216

Kriesi, H. (2020). Is there a crisis of democracy in Europe? Politische vierteljahresschrift, 61, 237-260.

Vachudova, M. A. (2021). Populism, democracy, and party system change in Europe. Annual Review of Political Science, 24, 471-498.

Pirro, A. L., & Stanley, B. (2022). Forging, bending, and breaking: Enacting the “illiberal playbook” in Hungary and Poland. Perspectives on Politics, 20(1), 86-101.

Zulianello, M. (2020). Varieties of populist parties and party systems in Europe: From state-of-the-art to the application of a novel classification scheme to 66 parties in 33 countries. Government and Opposition, 55(2), 327-347.

Week 4 Populism and the media, 10 October (1^st week of students’ presentations)

L. Manucci, Populism and the media, OHP

Lorenz-Spreen, P., Oswald, L., Lewandowsky, S., & Hertwig, R. (2023). A systematic review of worldwide causal and correlational evidence on digital media and democracy. Nature human behaviour, 7(1), 74-101.

S. Waisboard, (2018) The elective affinity between post-truth communication and populist politics, Communication Research and Practice, 4(1), 17-34.

B. Moffitt (2015) How to Perform Crisis: A Model for Understanding the Key Role of Crisis in Contemporary Populism, Government and Opposition, 50(2), 189-217

Week 5 Identity, religion, immigration 17 October

Zuquete, J.P. Populism and Religion, OHP [for students who read Italian see also L. Zanatta, Il populismo gesuita. Laterza 2020]

Dennison, J., & Geddes, A. (2019). A rising tide? The salience of immigration and the rise of anti‐immigration political parties in Western Europe. The political quarterly, 90(1), 107-116.

Brubaker, R. (2017). Between nationalism and civilizationism: The European populist moment in comparative perspective. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(8), 1191-1226.

Marcinkiewicz, K., & Dassonneville, R. (2022). Do religious voters support populist radical right parties? Opposite effects in Western and East-Central Europe. Party Politics, 28(3), 444-456.

[Selected chapters from: Saving the people: how populists hijack religion / Nadia Marzouki, Duncan McDonnell, Olivier Roy (editors), London: C. Hurst & Co. Ltd., 2016]

Week 6 Intermediate exam, 24 October

In-class exam consisting in two short responses (around 800/1,000 words) to comment a recent political event, starting from a short you-tube video (2-3 mins). Students will have to assess the significance of populism in the event analysed and the way democracy deals with the populist challenge. Online sources can be consulted. Plagiarism check will take place. This mid-term exam will count as 30% of the overall evaluation (see below)

Week 7 Populism West & East, 31 October

OHP:

P. Taggart, Populism in Western Europe,

B. Stanley, Populism in Eastern Europe

Huijsmans, T. (2023). Place resentment in ‘the places that don’t matter’: explaining the geographic divide in populist and anti-immigration attitudes. Acta Politica, 58(2), 285-305.

Orenstein, M. A., & Bugarič, B. (2022). Work, family, Fatherland: the political economy of populism in central and Eastern Europe. Journal of European Public Policy, 29(2), 176-195.

Ananda, A., & Dawson, J. (2023). Cultural liberalism in Eastern and Western Europe: a societal antidote to democratic backsliding? Journal of European Public Policy, 1-24.

 

Week 8 Populism and Technocracy, 7 November

C. Bickerton, C. Invernizzi-Accetti, Populism and technocracy, in OHP

Caramani, D. (2017) ‘Will vs. Reason: The Populist and Technocratic Forms of Political Representation and Their Critique to Party Government’, American Political Science Review, 111, 54–67.

Emanuele, V., Improta, M., Marino, B., & Verzichelli, L. (2023). Going technocratic? Diluting governing responsibility in electorally turbulent times. West European Politics, 46(5), 995-1023.

Pytlas, B. (2022). Beyond populism: The diversity of thin anti-establishment contestation in turbulent times. Party Politics, onlinefirst

Week 9: Populism, Euroscepticism and Sovereignism, 14 November

Brubaker, R. (2020), Populism and Nationalism, Nations and Nationalism, 1, 44-66

Taggart P. & Szczerbiak, A. (2018) Putting Brexit into perspective: the effect of the Eurozone and migration crises and Brexit on Euroscepticism in European states, Journal of European Public Policy, 25:8, 1194-1214

Treib, O. (2021). Euroscepticism is here to stay: what cleavage theory can teach us about the 2019 European Parliament elections. Journal of European public policy, 28(2), 174-189.

Van Kessel, S., Chelotti, N., Drake, H., Roch, J., & Rodi, P. (2020). Eager to leave? Populist radical right parties’ responses to the UK’s Brexit vote. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 22(1), 65-84.

Fabbrini, S., & Zgaga, T. (2023). Right‐Wing Sovereignism in the European Union: Definition, Features and Implications. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, onlinefirst.

 

Week 10: Populists in government, 21 November

Askim, J., Karlsen, R., & Kolltveit, K. (2021). Populists in Government: Normal or Exceptional? Government and Opposition, 1-21. doi:10.1017/gov.2021.30

Baldini, G. Giglioli, M. (2020), Bread or Circuses? Repoliticization in the Italian Populist Government Experience, Government and Opposition, vol. 56: 3, 505-524

Schwörer, J. (2022). Less populist in power? Online communication of populist parties in coalition governments. Government and Opposition, 57(3), 467-489.

Vittori, D. (2022). Threat or corrective? Assessing the impact of populist parties in government on the qualities of democracy: A 19-country comparison. Government and Opposition, 57(4), 589-609.

Peters, B. G., & Pierre, J. (2019). Populism and public administration: Confronting the administrative state. Administration & Society, 51(10), 1521-1545.

 

Week 11: Populism, Nationalism and the Pandemic, 28 November

Brubaker, R. (2017) Why Populism? Theory and Society 46, 357–385.

Bieber, F. (2022). Global nationalism in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nationalities Papers, 50(1), 13-25.

Flinders, M. (2021). Democracy and the politics of coronavirus: trust, blame and understanding. Parliamentary Affairs, 74(2), 483-502.

Brubaker, R. (2020) Paradoxes of Populism during the Pandemic, Thesis Eleven, 164(1), 73-87.

Week 12, Populism and Foreign Policy, 5 December

Verbeek, B and Zaslove, A. 'Populism and Foreign Policy', in OHP

Chryssogelos, A. 2021. “Is There a Populist Foreign Policy?” Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 202, March 30, 2021, https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/03/there-populist-foreign-policy/typology-populist-foreign-policy [https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/03/there10populist10foreign10policy/typology10populist10foreign10policy.]

Destradi, S., Cadier, D., & Plagemann, J. (2021). Populism and foreign policy: a research agenda (Introduction). Comparative European Politics, 19(6), 663-682.

Comparative European Politics SPECIAL ISSUE https://link.springer.com/journal/41295/volumes-and-issues/19-6

Week 13 Democracy, populism and party competition in Europe, 12 December

overview and comparative papers; reading on national case studies from:

D. Albertazzi, D. Vampa, Populism and New Patterns of Political Competition in Western Europe, London, Routledge, 2021

Wolinetz, S. Zaslove, A. (2018) Absorbing the blow, Colchester, Ecpr Press

Metodi didattici

Il corso adotta una modalità di organizzazione della didattica secondo il modello del seminario strutturato.

Al primo incontro verranno ulteriormente dettagliate le modalità e la struttura del corso. Nelle successive settimane l'incontro verterà su due ore di discussione delle letture assegnate, mentre nella terza ora si costruiranno collegamenti con i contenuti della settimana successiva, al fine di indirizzare la lettura degli studenti e la discussione da tenersi sette giorni dopo.

Durante le prime due settimane si costruirà anche il calendario degli assignment, che si baseranno su un lavoro critico, non meramente descrittivo/riassuntivo, da parte degli studenti, che dovranno produrre due relazioni scritte (che contribuiranno, come dettagliato di seguito, alla valutazione finale).

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

La valutazione dello studente sarà basata:

- sulla qualità della partecipazione alle discussioni (10%)

- sulla prova intermedia (30%)

- sulla qualità delle 2 relazioni scritte e della loro presentazione (30% ciascuna)

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Discussioni di gruppo

Presentazioni Powerpoint

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Gianfranco Baldini