ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with a section addressing general characteristics of the literature on populism. Margaret Canovan's theoretical approach to populism and other authors are addressed here. The following sub-section evaluates three theoretical populist approaches that could potentially provide an analytical structure for this in-depth investigation. First, Paul Taggart's ‘heartland & chameleon’ theoretical approach to populism is evaluated, followed by Francisco Panizza's theoretical propositions and Ernesto Laclau's theoretical characteristics of populism. The second section discusses Laclau's theoretical approach combined with Jason Glynos and David Howarth's ‘logics approach’ methodological schema. This chapter seeks to achieve two important objectives. First, it addresses different theoretical approaches to populism in the literature and determines which theories to use in order to identify instances of populist politics and categorize the key elements of such politics. Second, it selects a methodological model in which key elements from a case study can be categorized and offers a new approach to understanding the dynamics of populist political practices in a deeply polarized society.
