“The irresistible charm of right-wing populism: what’s to be loved and who falls in love?”

The Institute for the Humanities SEENEXT Working Group presents, “The irresistible charm of right-wing populism: what’s to be loved and who falls in love?”

The rise of right-wing populism has become a subject of a small research industry. There are various conceptualizations of the phenomenon and several explanations of its popularity. Some of them privilege supply factors and focus on the activities of a specific category of actors who champion a (partially) novel anti-liberal ideology that for a considerable number of people is irresistible. The demand side explanations try to identify and understand the people who cannot resist the charm of anti-liberal populism. Jan will present some observations on both the demand and supply sides of the phenomenon, based on their work in Central Europe, mostly Poland (the POPREBEL Project).

Jan Kubik is a Distinguished Professor in the political science department at Rutgers University and professor of Slavonic and East European studies at University College London. He is the author of “The Power of Symbols against the Symbols of Power,” “Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland, 1989-1993” (with Grzegorz Ekiert), “Anthropology and Political Science” (with Myron Aronoff) and “Twenty Years After Communism: The Politics of Memory and Commemoration” (with Michael Bernhard).