{"title":"POPULISM AS A POLITICAL STRATEGY: IS IT A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY?","authors":"Petar Murginski","doi":"10.53477/2284-9378-22-89","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Some authors have been highly critical of populism and naturally, this has raised the question of whether populism is dangerous for democracy or not. I wish to provide a critique of this claim and instead suggest that populism is sometimes necessary for established democracies. Developing this argument, this paper proceeds as follows: Firstly, I will outline Urbinati’s criticism of populism. Secondly, using Popper’s paradox of tolerance, I will show how Urbinati’s view is teleological and becomes a defence of the status quo thereby impeding political progress. Thirdly, I will show how populism’s relationship with democracy is best conceptualised as a creatively destructive one and how populists, once having accepted the Popperian condition of tolerance, can be a force for good in democracies by illuminating issues which were previously left outside the realm of mainstream politics.","PeriodicalId":33675,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of Carol I National Defense University","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Bulletin of Carol I National Defense University","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.53477/2284-9378-22-89","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Some authors have been highly critical of populism and naturally, this has raised the question of whether populism is dangerous for democracy or not. I wish to provide a critique of this claim and instead suggest that populism is sometimes necessary for established democracies. Developing this argument, this paper proceeds as follows: Firstly, I will outline Urbinati’s criticism of populism. Secondly, using Popper’s paradox of tolerance, I will show how Urbinati’s view is teleological and becomes a defence of the status quo thereby impeding political progress. Thirdly, I will show how populism’s relationship with democracy is best conceptualised as a creatively destructive one and how populists, once having accepted the Popperian condition of tolerance, can be a force for good in democracies by illuminating issues which were previously left outside the realm of mainstream politics.