The End of Politics as Usual? Populism in Western Europe and North America
Abstract
Across both ends of the Atlantic, the permissive consensus that had for long acted as a safety net for the liberal democratic practice is being challenged by a plebiscitary trend. This new breed of populist politics threatens not only to disassociate liberalism from democracy— by creating zones of deliberation above the polity— but also consciously attempts to reconfigure the very ontology of politics. In this article we pick four episodes from Western Europe and North America, which we think are representative of the global shift in political order towards the mainstreaming of populism: Le Front National in France; the Alternative für Deutschland in Germany; Movimento 5 Stelle in Italy; and Donald Trump in the United States. Ultimately, this piece argues that the populist far right has managed to become mainstream in Western politics; consequently, for liberal democracy to survive, populism should be managed, not dismissed. In other words, engaging with illiberal populist actors as legitimate contenders is not a concession to extremism but a commitment to political inclusion.
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References
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Bartsch, M., Bruhns, A., Clauss, A., Eberle, L., Elger, K., von Laffert, B., Meyer, C., & Thimm, K. (2018, April 19). Germany and immigration: The changing face of the country. Spiegel Online. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-and-immigration-the-changing-face-of-the-country-a-1203143.html
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Benner, T. (2017, October 1). Handling the Alternative for Germany. Foreign Affairs. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/europe/2017-09-29/handling-alternative-germany
Berbuir, N., Lewandowsky, M., & Siri, J. (2015). The AfD and its sympathisers: Finally a right-wing populist movement in Germany? German Politics, 24(2), 154–178.
Betz, H.-G. (2018). The new Front National: Still a master case? In J. E. Fossum, R. Kastoryano, & B. Siim (Eds.), Diversity and contestations over nationalism in Europe and Canada (pp. 313–336). Palgrave Macmillan.
Bobba, G., & Legnante, G. (2017). A breeding ground for populist political communication. In T. Aalberg et al. (Eds.), Populist political communication in Europe (pp. 221–234). Routledge.
Bonikowski, B. (2019). Trump's populism. In K. Weyland & R. L. Madrid (Eds.), When democracy trumps populism (pp. 113–137). Cambridge University Press.
Davis, C. (2005). Hauntology, spectres and phantoms. French Studies, 59(3), 373–379.
Diamanti, I. (2014). The 5 Star Movement: A political laboratory. Contemporary Italian Politics, 6(1), 4–15.
Freeden, M. (2004). Is nationalism a distinct ideology? Political Studies, 52(1), 48–66.
Goodman, P. S. (2016, November 19). Italy's banks are in a slow-motion crisis. And Europe may pay. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/business/dealbook/italys-banks-are-in-a-slow-motion-crisis-and-europe-may-pay.html
Hansen, M. A., & Olsen, J. (2019). Flesh of the same flesh: A study of voters for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the 2017 federal election. German Politics, 28(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2018.1509312
Mayer, J. (2019, June 25). The making of the Fox News White House. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house
McElwee, S., & McDaniel, J. (2017, May 8). Economic anxiety didn't make people vote Trump, racism did. The Nation.
Mény, Y., & Surel, Y. (2002). The constitutive ambiguity of populism. In Y. Mény & Y. Surel (Eds.), Democracies and the populist challenge (pp. 1–17). Palgrave Macmillan.
Mischke, J. (2019, April 18). German interior minister: AfD is 'highly dangerous.' Politico. https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-far-right-afd-interior-minister-highly-dangerous/
Momigliano, A. (2018, March 7). The Italian center-left didn't collapse. It never existed. Foreign Policy. https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/07/the-italian-center-left-didnt-collapse-it-never-existed/
Mondon, A. (2016). The mainstreaming of the extreme right in France and Australia: A populist hegemony? Routledge.
Mudde, C. (2004). The populist Zeitgeist. Government and Opposition, 39(4), 542–563.
Mudde, C. (2010). The populist radical right: A pathological normalcy. West European Politics, 33(6), 1167–1186.
Mudde, C., & Rovira Kaltwasser, C. (2012). Exclusionary vs. inclusionary populism: Comparing contemporary Europe and Latin America. Government and Opposition, 48(2), 153–179.
Müller, J.-W. (2017). What is populism? Penguin Books ; Gidron, N., & Bonikowski, B. (2013). Varieties of populism: Literature review and research agenda. SSRN Electronic Journal.; Hawkins, K. A., & Littvay, L. (2019). Contemporary US populism in comparative perspective. Cambridge University Press.
Müller, J.-W. (2018, June 8). Italy: The bright side of populism? The New York Review of Books. https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/06/08/italy-the-bright-side-of-populism/
Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. (2019). Cultural backlash: Trump, Brexit, and authoritarian populism. Cambridge University Press.
Panizza, Francisco, ed. Populism and the Mirror of Democracy. London: Verso, 2005.
Pew Research Center. (2018, March 2). Many Italians deeply pessimistic ahead of election. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/02/many-italians-are-deeply-pessimistic-ahead-of-general-election/
Reilly, K. (2021, April 29). Hillary Clinton transcript: 'Basket of deplorables' comment. Time. https://time.com/4486502/hillary-clinton-basket-of-deplorables-transcript/
Sayare, S. (2017, April 20). How Marine Le Pen played the media. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/apr/20/how-marine-le-pen-played-the-media
Schaffner, B. F., MacWilliams, M., & Nteta, T. (2018). Understanding white polarization in the 2016 vote for president: The sobering role of racism and sexism. Political Science Quarterly, 133, 9–34. https://doi.org/10.1002/polq.12737
Schimmelfennig, F., & Winzen, T. (2014). Instrumental and constitutional differentiation in the European Union. Journal of Common Market Studies, 52(2), 354–370.
Sciolino, E. (2007, March 30). Tensions over French identity shape voter drives. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/world/europe/30france.html
Snipes, A., & Mudde, C. (2020). "France's (kinder, gentler) extremist": Marine Le Pen, intersectionality, and media framing of female populist radical right leaders. Politics & Gender, 16(2), 438–470.
Stanley, B. (2008). The thin ideology of populism. Journal of Political Ideologies, 13(1), 99–115.
Swank, D., & Betz, H.-G. (2003). Globalization, the welfare state, and right-wing populism in Western Europe. Socio-Economic Review, 1(2), 197–217.
The New York Times. (2018, June 8). Italy's new populist leaders vow to deliver on campaign promises. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/03/world/europe/italy-government.html
Van Spanje, J. (2010). Contagious parties: Anti-immigration parties and their impact on other parties' immigration stances in contemporary Western Europe. Party Politics, 16(5), 563–586.
Völker, T. (2026). How the media cordon sanitaire crumbles: lessons from Germany. Political Research Exchange, 8(1), 2621808.
Will, G. F. (2019, January 9). Alternative for Germany is a Rorschach test for anyone watching the country. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/alternative-for-germany-is-a-rorschach-test-for-anyone-watching-thecountry/2019/01/09/397b07d8-137c-11e9-803c-4ef28312c8b9_story.html
Will, G. F. (2019, January 9). Alternative for Germany is a Rorschach test for anyone watching the country. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/alternative-for-germany-is-a-rorschach-test-for-anyone-watching-thecountry/2019/01/09/397b07d8-137c-11e9-803c-4ef28312c8b9_story.html
Witte, G., & Beck, L. (2018, June 8). The far right is back in the Reichstag, bringing with it taunts and insults. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-far-right-is-back-in-the-german-parliament-bringing-taunts-insults-and-laughter/2018/06/07/d49839ca-5f90-11e8-b656-236c6214ef01_story.html
YouTube. (2016, November 30). Italy's Beppe Grillo celebrates Trump-style populism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCiaGG-QHsY
YouTube. (2018, February 9). The Trump-Fox & Friends feedback loop, explained. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1d7UvKWh6M&t=195s
Published
2026-06-10
How to Cite
Bachagha, B., & Drid, F. (2026). The End of Politics as Usual? Populism in Western Europe and North America. Journal of Science and Knowledge Horizons, 6(2), 367-385. https://doi.org/10.34118/jskp.v6i2.4638
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
