The People, Populism and Anti-Populism: Greek Political Discourse against the Shadow of the European Crisis

Populism is back on the agenda. Against the background of traditional populist mobilisations, the last few decades have been marked by an international resurgence of populist phenomena. However the complex language games and political realignments which have developed around “populism” in the context of the global financial crisis add a further complication to the picture. This is particularly the case in Europe, where the crisis has not so far led to the elaboration of institutional alternatives in the arena of mainstream politics. The crisis has however generated a proliferation of new types of “anti-populist” discourse. Thus whereas Latin-American left-wing populism has been instrumental in resisting the implementation of the “Washington consensus” and while the Occupy movement has re-introduced popular demands into public debate in the US, the predominant European responses to the crisis have failed to register the popular factor and have opted for a post-democratic, if not authoritarian orientation. Located at the forefront of these developments, the Greek case reveals the grave dangers which this entails for democracy and for the future of Europe. It also forces us to adopt a more nuanced approach towards the inevitability and even desirability of certain types of populism.