This article argues that the challenges to political legitimacy currently encountered by liberal democracies affected by populist anti-centrism imply a crisis of theoretical understanding. This is because the competing claims made by recent and contemporary political thinkers reflect common underlying assumptions that put them radically at odds with the perspectives of at least some of those now embracing political populism. As a consequence, the latter find themselves excluded from any justifications for preferring certain sorts of political institution – such as liberal-democratic ones – over others.
