Presentations by Streams

This panel explores diverse appeals to, and practices of, solidarity in populist politics. Instead of strict delineation of populism as ideology, style, or a form of politics, we consider populism as an element of any mass mobilization appealing to popular solidarity against the politics of actually or supposedly ruling elites. Such appeals may be grounded in ideas of the past and tradition, shared legacies of state-socialism, romantic nationalism, folk Catholicism, and rural populism. Others may be grounded in new emancipatory movements such as co-operativism, local foodways, and alternative community projects that may or may not invoke populist sentiments explicitly. We suggest that appeals to solidarity is necessary for any feasible and legitimate policy to be applied in countries with deep populist legacies and acts as a possible mobilization of resources for the development of transformative projects. The theme of solidarity can thus help illuminate how the effects of global economic, pandemic, and security crises emerge in reactionary or/and progressive forms of populism. We propose to look at the interplay of several dimensions of mass politics via the lens of solidarity. What forms and patterns of class, ethnic, or status solidarity appeal to populism? What is the major representation of solidarity – who are the people – in particular national cases? With whom exactly the populist solidarity builds unity and whom it divides?

The panel is open to papers inspired by historical-structural perspectives on political economy, as well as to more culturalist approaches to economy and politics. Preference will be given to proposals featuring research in one or more of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It is the intention to proceed to a publication that would highlight the importance of case studies on populist solidarity in democracies emerging after/in a consequence of state-socialism.