The Curse of Popularity: Portraits, Ideologies, Programs From the Past and Present of Populism edited by Kristóf Heil and Bernadett Petri

The significant global rise of populism—which can mean, among other things, ideology, political behavior, style, strategy—is enlivening the scientific, political, and public discourses of our century, when it won the title of word of the year in 2017. Although the dominant tone and attitude of these discourses towards populism has always been strongly negative and hostile, the aim of the study volume The Curse of Popularity: Portraits, Ideologies, Programs From the Past and Present of Populism is to change this. The book edited by Kristóf Mihály Heil and Bernadett Petri highlights that populism is not as bad as we knew or thought until now.

From the eleven crisply written but factual chapters, we can learn about the conceptual difficulties of (political) populism, its history from the 19^th century to the present day, and its current characteristics broken down into individual countries, parties, movements, and leaders. As a final conclusion, populism can be the highest expression of democracy, but it is at least the path leading to it, and by no means its opposite. Thus, instead of defending against being accused of populism, one should simply accept it and be proud of it. In this review, we call this new style or strategy that supports populism “hooray populism,” which—replacing post-liberalism—suggests the coming of a political zeitgeist in which the time for apologies is over.

As the subtitle of the volume indicates, the focus of the work is a comprehensive presentation of the past and present of populism, with some (necessary) overlaps between the chapters. Among other things, the origin of the Latin word populare, the early American and Russian populist movements, the appearance of populism and post-liberalism in Europe, populism in Latin America, Italy, and the United Kingdom, and Angela Merkel’s relationship to populism are discussed. Therefore, although the work is written with academic sophistication, its introductory and reinforcing nature makes it easy to read for those who are less familiar with the subject or with political science. Nevertheless, the volume is a fresh spot for those who want to deal more thoroughly with populism since the authors have replaced the sharply critical, hostile tone that dominates this topic with a striking and supportive, pro- or “hooray-populist” style. 

The inherent novelty of the chapters dissolves the concrete unipolar approach of populism, which has characterized scientific, political, and public discourses until now. It highlights that the populism with which they like to label political actors—including the current Hungarian government and prime minister—is not a unique and modern phenomenon, it is not exclusively left-wing or right-wing, soft or hard, good or bad. Rather, it is an ideology, political behavior, style, and strategy, which has both positive and negative aspects, and which individual political parties, movements, and leaders can use profitably and to their liking. Populism’s aim is for the given political actor to gain popularity. And of course, who wouldn’t want that? Given that political success (especially in a democracy) requires popularity. In other words, all political actors use, for example, elements of populist rhetoric during their campaigns.

Despite this, some well-established political parties, movements and leaders are fondly given the populist stigma, accompanied by a strong negative connotation. They are applied to them as a kind of swear word or fighting phrase, which greatly spoils the taste of political success. Moreover, it can lead to political failure or loss of ground. And this is how popularity can turn from a blessing to a curse, to refer to the title of the volume. The new strategy proposed by the editors and the publisher offers an opportunity to get out of this vicious circle by the adoption of populism. After all, if populism is nothing more than the representation of the people’s interests, the will of the majority, then populism can also be the highest form of expression of democracy, so the stigmatized should—instead of making excuses for it—be proud of it (Szánthó, 2023: 7). Because of this included novel strategy or perception, the study volume The Curse of Popularity represents an important stage for thinking, writing, and talking about populism.