POPULISM: THE COMPLEXITY OF A CONCEPT

a complexidade de um conceito

Abstract

This essay examines the conceptual complexity of populism by contrasting its simplistic and pejorative use in public debate with more nuanced theoretical reflections developed in academic scholarship. Criticizing journalistic analyses that equate petismo and bolsonarism as forms of populism, the text argues that the phenomenon cannot be reduced to a mere anti-elite rhetoric. Different theoretical approaches are presented: on one hand, scholars such as Jan-Werner Müller and Harry Collins emphasize the anti-pluralist and anti-scientific nature of contemporary populism, viewing it as a threat to democratic institutions. On the other hand, Ernesto Laclau and Benjamin Arditi analyze populism as a constitutive form of the political, tied to the construction of collective identities and the representation of historically marginalized demands. Pierre Rosanvallon and Nadia Urbinati, in turn, problematize populism’s impact on democratic representation, showing how it delegitimizes institutional mediations in the name of an alleged direct sovereignty of the people. The essay concludes that populism is a multifaceted phenomenon whose understanding requires moving beyond moralistic judgments and adopting theoretical frameworks capable of capturing its ambiguities, contradictions, and implications for democracy.