ABSTRACT
All populist forces develop a vision with a high degree of disintermediation, referring to the people as a single subject charged with the task of organizing the government of public life. Populists try to resemble as much as possible the people they wish to represent, adopting a colloquial linguistic register and an informal personal style. Starting from the populist experience of the early 21st century in countries of Latin America, Kurt Weyland describes the populist turn as a strategy used by leaders to ingratiate themselves with the people and to take power with the direct involvement of their respective social base. Populism, however, is not only a product of post-ideological society. In Russia, the term, narodnichestvo, was first coined in the 1840s and is primarily used to indicate the political movements and demands that, under the then czarist empire, promoted the liberation of the peasant population. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
