ABSTRACT
Populism is also growing in Europe as shown by the unexpected Brexit outcome. Populism in Europe can be traced back to previous waves. Like in America, European populism has raised the banner of returning political power to the people. The chapter discusses if the populist promise of returning power to the people leads to an improvement of democracy or, on the contrary, to sheer authoritarianism. The populism makes a peculiar use of the democratic creed, turning it into a political myth that promises salvation and remedy to all evils by establishing the true government of the people. In the language of populism, political conflict is the expression of an antagonism, literally a position that is defined by the opposition to the other, and in this sense, the conflict cannot be solved by agreement but by victory and defeat. The main institutional arrangements of post-war politics in Europe were a great consensus on liberal democracy and the welfare state.
