The impact of populism on party organization? A study of four Southern European ‘populist’ parties

The electoral growth of several ‘anti-political establishment parties’ in Europe since the end of the Cold War, was accompanied by the growth of the use of the catch-all category of populism to describe them. Despite the countless analyses related to populism, less attention – with some relevant exceptions – has been given to the impact of populism on party organizations. Still, populist parties do organize. While it is common to compare the organization of political parties belonging to the same party family, the attention on the impact of populism in shaping parties with different ideological backgrounds is scarce. This paper focuses on this literature gap, analyzing four parties, which the literature labels as ‘populist’. The conclusion reached in this paper is that populism can be an ideological feature incorporated by different parties; however, its impact on the organization differs substantially from one party to another.