ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes that reflections on the nature of populism can help generate a set of expectations about its relationship to the environment. Such a deductive approach - which contrasts with the more inductive ones present in the existing literature - should lead to a more complete and analytically-informed understanding of what stances populist parties take and of how they take those stances. The chapter therefore starts by identifying the key features of populism - including its ideological ‘thinness,’ people-centrism and anti-elitism. It then proposes that we can expect populist parties, if they act as true populists, to vary in their approaches to the environment but nonetheless anchor their stances in their people-centrism and anti-elitism. The chapter notes that the proposed framework has important implications, discussed in Chapter 8, for whether there are reasons to think any given populist party is genuine in its stances, will remain consistent over time, and will in practice implement corresponding policies.
