“Hardly anyone knows populism better than Catherine Fieschi. In this excellent book, she has something new to say about why the confusion and discontent of our age has taken the specific form of populism.” – Simon Kuper, columnist, Financial Times
“Accessible, thought-provoking and innovative. Fieschi’s concept of authenticity provides an intriguing way of describing the populist imaginary.” – Ben Margulies, LSE Review of Books
“Essential reading” – Danny Dorling, University of Oxford
“This book gives the vital missing links between the history of populism and its contemporary forms” – Heather Grabbe, Director, Open Society European Institute, Brussels
In this book, Catherine Fieschi looks beyond definitional issues to examine why populism and populist parties have become a feature of our politics. Populism’s appeal, she argues, needs to be understood as a response to the fundamental reshaping of our political, economic, and social spheres through globalization and the digital revolution. She shows how new dynamics unleashed by social media—the fantasy of radical transparency, the demand for immediacy, the rejection of expert truth and facts, and the imperative of continuous involvement—have been harnessed by populism, enabling it to make inroads into the political landscape that hitherto would have been unreceptive.
