ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the different conceptualisations with an eye to suggesting similarities and differences amongst them, as well as assessing the current state of democracy in the era of neoliberal crisis along with the responses it has provoked. It seeks to extrapolate the normative goals informing extant conceptualisations and perform the normative control: are the identified value goals served by their respective conceptualizations? The chapter turns to the practical control, assessing whether the concepts adopted can contribute to a robust empirical science. It argues that ‘populism’ is neither pitting a virtuous people against a corrupt elite, nor a strategy of personalist leaders, but a deceptive oppositional discourse. The chapter utilizes the new concept as a handle for a sweeping historical review of issues pertaining to the evolution of the Left. It gives the opportunity to reflect on the challenges of a social science which can be both normatively impartial and phronetic.
