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57 - Populism

from Part IV - Challenges for Constitutional Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2025

By
Paul Blokker
Edited by
Richard Bellamy  and
Jeff King
Richard Bellamy
Affiliation:
University College London
Jeff King
Affiliation:
University College London
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Summary

Populism in relation to constitutionalism is a widely discussed and critical, topic. In the literature on the phenomenon, there is a prevalence to identify populism as antithetical to constitutional democracy and as eroding the idea and fundamentals of constitutionalism. However, as this chapter will show, much depends on the definitions offered of populism and constitutionalism, and the analytical commitment to study both as historical phenomena with important contextual differences. As I will argue in this chapter, constitutionalism as such is a contested phenomenon, and populism frequently takes up different forms of critique on the predominant legal understanding of constitutionalism. Furthermore, populism is a phenomenon that manifests itself in different ways, displaying diverse guises depending on distinctive ideological position (left- or rightwing), but equally showing variety in terms of positioning regarding characteristic issues, such as sovereignty, the definition of the political community, or relations to constituent power.

Keywords

anti-populismcomparative analysisconstitutionalismleft-wing populismright-wing populism
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory , pp. 1015 - 1033
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Recommended Reading

Alterio, A. M. (2019). Reactive vs structural approach: A public law response to populism. Global Constitutionalism, 8 (2), 270–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arato, A. (2019). Populism, Constitutional Courts, and Civil Society. In Landfried, C., ed., Judicial power: how constitutional courts affect political transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 318–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blokker, P. (2018). Populist constitutionalism. In de la Torre, C., ed., Routledge handbook of global populism, London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Blokker, P. (2019a). Populism as a constitutional project. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 17 (2), 536–553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bugaric, B. & Tushnet, M. (2021). Populism and constitutionalism: an essay on definitions and their implications, Cardozo Law Review, 42 (6), pp. 2345–2393.Google Scholar
Corrias, L. (2016). Populism in a Constitutional Key: Constituent Power, Popular Sovereignty and Constitutional Identity. European Constitutional Law Review, 12 (6), 6–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaltwasser, C. R. (2013). Populism vs. Constitutionalism? Comparative Perspectives on Contemporary Western Europe, Latin America, and the United States. The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society Policy Brief.Google Scholar
Landau, D. (2018). Populist Constitutions. University of Chicago Law Review, 85 (2), 521–543.Google Scholar
Müller, J.-W. (2018). Populism and Constitutionalism. In Kaltwasser, C. R. et al., eds., The Oxford Handbook of Populism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 590–606.Google Scholar
Nash, K. (2016). Politicising Human Rights in Europe: Challenges to Legal Constitutionalism From the Left and the Right. International Journal of Human Rights, 20 (8), 1295–1308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oklopcic, Z. (2019). Imagined ideologies: Populist figures, liberalist projections, and the horizons of constitutionalism. German Law Journal, 20 (2), 201–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheppele, K. L. (2019). The opportunism of populists and the defense of constitutional liberalism. German Law Journal, 20 (3), 314–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thio, L.-A. (2012). Constitutionalism in Illiberal Polities. In Rosenfeld, M. & Sajó, A., eds., The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 133–152.Google Scholar
Thornhill, C. (2020). Constitutionalism and populism: national political integration and global legal integration. International Theory, 12 (1), 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, N. (2019). Populism and constitutional tension. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 17 (2), 515–535.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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  • Populism
  • Edited by Richard Bellamy, University College London, Jeff King, University College London
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory
  • Online publication: 27 March 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108868143.067
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Populism
  • Edited by Richard Bellamy, University College London, Jeff King, University College London
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory
  • Online publication: 27 March 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108868143.067
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Populism
  • Edited by Richard Bellamy, University College London, Jeff King, University College London
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory
  • Online publication: 27 March 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108868143.067
Available formats
×