Populism. The Timeline of a Concept - Diccionario de símbolos políticos y sociales

Autor: Juan Francisco Fuentes
Título de la publicación:Populism. The Timeline of a Concept
Revista: Contributions to the History of Concepts. Vol 15. Issue 1, Summer 2020, pp. 47-68
Abstract: The concept of populism has generated endless controversy marked by both the contrasting political feelings it conveys and a particular problem of defi nition. Th is article—based on political speeches, academic literature, and relevant online sources, such as Google Ngram Viewer, catalogs of great libraries, and digital archives of newspapers—adopts a pragmatic approach to the concept throughout its history, from the moment when the noun appeared in North American political life in the late nineteenth century until the most recent “populist moment” in response to the economic crisis that started in 2008. Th e study of its changing meanings shows, however, some elements of continuity that make sense of what Margaret Canovan defi ned as “a notoriously vague term.”