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Defining and Researching Populist Parties in Central and Eastern Europe

Publication date: 15.11.2024

Teoria Polityki, 2024, Nr 10/Special Issue, pp. 151-163

https://doi.org/10.4467/25440845TP.24.008.20600

Authors

,
Paulina Lenik
Jagiellonian University in Kraków
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7423-6345 Orcid
All publications →
Natasza Styczyńska
Jagiellonian University in Kraków
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5056-8241 Orcid
All publications →

Titles

Defining and Researching Populist Parties in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

One of the first constatations for those researching populist parties is the lack
of one, universal definition of the concept of populism. That reads directly into the ways
we try to capture populist parties. Certain features unify the populist actors, primarily
the supply of rhetoric to safeguard the majority rule of the people, by some referred to as
populist ideology (Mudde, Kaltwasser, 2013). However, not only the definition of populism
creates challenges to the proper identification of populist parties. Several other
notions, such as ideology or left-right placement – and the misalignment in its general
understanding – increase the complexity of studies that attempt to compare populist parties.
The article focuses on theoretical aspects of populism studies, with a special focus
on the populist parties in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) that developed in a peculiar
post-communist setting that influenced party performance in the region.

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Information

Information: Teoria Polityki, 2024, Nr 10/Special Issue, pp. 151-163

Article type: Original article

Authors

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7423-6345

Paulina Lenik
Jagiellonian University in Kraków
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7423-6345 Orcid
All publications →

Jagiellonian University in Kraków

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5056-8241

Natasza Styczyńska
Jagiellonian University in Kraków
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5056-8241 Orcid
All publications →

Jagiellonian University in Kraków

Published at: 15.11.2024

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Paulina Lenik (Author) - 50%
Natasza Styczyńska (Author) - 50%

Information about author:

Paulina Lenik – post-doctoral researcher in the Taube Centre for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science and International Relations, Jagiellonian University. Her research interests include electoral behaviour, Central and Eastern Europe, populism, and survey data analysis. E-mail: p.lenik@uj.edu.pl.

Natasza Styczyńska – Assistant Professor at the Institute of European Studies of the Jagiellonian University. Her academic interests include party politics, nationalism, populism and Euroscepticism in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. E-mail: natasza.styczynska@uj.edu.pl.

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