Paula Diehl’s work engages with complexities of populism as a fluid and multidimensional phenomenon. In her nuanced and rigorous analysis, she looks into the ideological, communicational and organisational dimensions of populism that allow to detect temporal shifts. For her, populism is not necessarily authoritarian, but its specific characteristics can entail severe dangers for democracy.

Drawing on her notion of “populist twists”, this lecture will explore the ways in which populism reshapes the political landscape by transforming the relationship between leaders, their followers, and democratic norms. It will focus on the actual mechanisms that distort democratic representation illustrating the ways in which populist actors eclipse the tensions between accountability and authorization, between horizontal and vertical power, by using notions of equality, popular sovereignty and dis/trust. Hence, the lecture highlights the ambivalent relationship to democracy that populism relies on and helps us not only to understand the role of inherent contradictions, but also the workings of far-right ideology, discourse and practice today.

Short Bio

Paula Diehl is Professor of Political Theory, History of Ideas, and Political Culture and director of the International Populism Research Network at the University of Kiel. Her research focuses on political representation, political imaginaries, and populism. Recent publications include the edited volume _The Complexity of Populism (co-edited with Brigitte Bargetz, 2024) and a special issue on populism, concepts and methods for Polity (co-edited with Tim Weber, 2022).