Populism in Algeria: Negation of Politics

If one term can describe Algeria’s political system from its inception to today, it is populism. For social, cultural, and historical reasons, populism served as the ideological foundation for the national liberation movement and, later...

Populism in France: An overview of its history, narratives, and relationship with the media

 The last elections (legislative and European) in France have highlighted more than ever the success of populist parties and strategies in French politics, on the left as well as on the right. The aim of...

Bolivian Populism and Clientelism

At the core of this paper on Bolivian populism is the Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement for Socialism) or MAS, the political party currently in power. I argue that Bolivian populism is rooted in the national...

Populism in the Netherlands: tradition or trend?

This article examines the history of populism in the Netherlands and how this led to the recent success of the populist right-wing PVV. This party is mostly known for its radical ideas about migration and...

Developing a social enterprise devoted to democracy, deliberation and respect in a progressively hostile and indifferent environment: Experiences and observations of a social science trying to work in the eastern part of Germany

As citizens increasingly lose trust in politics and society, it becomes more important than ever for state and civilian organizations to be reliable, predictable, transparent, and decent. When citizens become more and more difficult to...

Angry, but not bad people on the Brandenburg countryside

We are in a small town in rural Brandenburg and talk for two days with 32 long-term unemployed people. Most of them are older than 50. They opted to become a part of a reintegration-program...

The Crisis of Masculinities – A Brief Overview

The so-called crisis of masculinity has drawn much attention and concern by politicians, academics, the public, and most dominantly, the media. This crisis is characterised by a widely perceived fear, uncertainty, and hysteria about the...

How Postmodernism Advanced Populism: An Inside Story From The Netherlands

There are many factors that explain the upheaval of populism. Postmodernism is one of them. In the Netherlands, certainly the columnist represented and helped to shape the postmodernist mood, a mood characterized by skepticism, subjectivism...

Long Read: Our Fellows Respond To Right Wing Populist Arguments

This year, Social Science Works has been working on the project ‘Deliberation Against Populism’ in which we have contacted citizens in Brandenburg that expressed an interest in populist political parties and arguments online. We have...

Alienation Online: An Analysis of Populist Facebook Pages In Brandenburg

This year, as part of the Social Science Works project ‘Deliberation gegen Populismus’ we have been monitoring right-wing populist Facebook pages associated with Brandenburg. The project was financed by Tolerantes Brandenburg and included work from...

Deliberation Against Populism: Reconnecting Radicalizing Citizens In East Germany & Elsewhere

In the deliberative project “Deliberation against Populism” we organized two events with citizens from Brandenburg, Germany, to discuss the problems that trouble them. The prime goal of the project was to find new ways to...

Taking people seriously: a new approach for countering populism and furthering integration

In our deliberative democracy and integration projects we treat our participants – natives as well as migrants – as citizens, able and willing to discuss in a rational way the big themes like democracy, freedom...

The Center Does Not Hold: The Supply & Demand of the New Right’s Success

The year 2016 experienced unheard of electoral turbulence. While many thought that Brexit would mark the political event to be remembered for a generation, ‘The Donald’ put paid to that. These processes have tempted some...

Progressive Neoliberalism & the Pull of Populism

In the wake of the turbulent US election, social theorist Nancy Fraser wrote that the progressive neoliberal politics of the establishment served as a major factor in ensuring the success of Donald Trump in ascending...

The Wave: The Rise Of European Far-Right Populism

2016 was a banner year in atypical electoral outcomes. At the outset of the year, few would have predicted the results of the Brexit vote, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United...

The French “Crisis of Authority” Is A Crisis Of The Authorities

In France, you lose count of how many times you’ve heard about the “crisis of authority”. It has become a central preoccupation, amongst and spread by, a wide range of influential people. First of all...