Responding to Rueda’s questions, this essay explains the political-strategic approach (PSA) to populism and highlights its analytical strengths, which have become even more important with the emergence of populist governments across the world. PSA identifies populism’s core by emphasizing the central role of personalistic leaders who tend to operate in opportunistic ways, rather than consistently pursuing programmatic or ideological orientations. PSA is especially useful nowadays, when scholars’ most urgent task is to elucidate the political strategies of populist chief executives and their problematic repercussions, especially populism’s threat to democracy.
BarrR (2017) The Resurgence of Populism in Latin America. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
2.
De NadalL (2020) On Populism and Social Movements: From the Indignados Do Podemos. Social Movement Studies20: 36–56.
3.
HawkinsKKaltwasserCR (2017) What the (Ideational) Study of Populism Can Teach Us, and What It Can’t. Swiss Political Science Review23 (4): 526–542.
4.
KennyP (2018) Populism in Southeast Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5.
KennyP (in press) The Strategic Approach to Populism. In: SubediDBScottAlanBrastedHowardLynchTony (eds) Routledge Handbook of Populism in the Asia Pacific. London: Routledge.
6.
MouzelisN (1985) On the Concept of Populism. Politics & Society14 (3): 329–348.
7.
RobertsK (2006) Populism, Political Conflict, and Grass-Roots Organization in Latin America. Comparative Politics38 (2): 127–148.
8.
UrbinatiN (2019) Me the People. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
9.
WeylandK (1993) The Rise and Fall of President Collor. Journal of Interamerican Studies35 (1): 1–37.
10.
WeylandK (1999) Neoliberal Populism in Latin America and Eastern Europe. Comparative Politics31 (4): 379–401.
11.
WeylandK (2013) Latin America’s Authoritarian Drift: Threat from the Populist Left. Journal of Democracy24 (3): 18–32.
12.
WeylandK (2014) Making Waves: Democratic Contention in Europe and Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
13.
WeylandK (2017) Populism: A Political-Strategic Approach. In: KaltwasserCRTaggartPAOstiguyP, et al (eds) Oxford Handbook of Populism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.48–72.
14.
WeylandK (2020) Populism’s Threat to Democracy. Perspectives on Populism18 (2): 389–406.
15.
WeylandK (2021) How Populism Dies: Political Weaknesses of Personalistic Plebiscitarian Leadership. Austin, TX: Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin.
