Course Syllabus (Summer Programme)
Western Democracy in Crisis: the Rise of
Populism and Post-truth Politics
(POL214G)
Contact Details for Professor
Name:
Antonios Nestoras
E-mail:
[email protected]
Mobile:
0489 108 243
Lectures
Tuesdays 14h00-18h00 & Thursdays 09h00-13h00
Course Description
This course will examine one of the defining political puzzles of our time: from the EU
referendum in the United Kingdom to the presidential election in the United States
and the rise of populist forces everywhere in Europe, there is a growing realization
that truth may no longer be relevant to politics. ‘Post-truth’ politics – the Oxford
Dictionaries word of the year – threatens to turn Western liberal democracy upsidedown. The public scorns at politicians, technocrats and experts; conspiracies and
viral hoaxes run rampant in social media; objective facts are less influential in
shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. We will use an
interdisciplinary approach
– with lectures, group activities and assignments – to
examine the philosophical underpinnings, the evolution and the effects of populism.
In the course of seven weeks we will consider a range of questions such as: is
populism a crisis of democracy or a legitimate revolt of the masses against their
shrinking political importance? To what extent can populism be considered as a
descendant of eighteenth century Romanticism? What are the ‘post-truth’ challenges
to the European Union, the transatlantic security and the liberal world order?
1 Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, students should:
In terms of knowledge
•
Have acquired profound knowledge of the theoretical and historical
frameworks in the academic literature on populism. He is able to apply these
frameworks in order to understand and interpret the current processes and
dynamics in international affairs.
•
Have gained an understanding of the main actors and the main processes that
contributed to the rise of populism and is able to apply this knowledge in order
to examine current international affairs.
•
Have gained insight into the broad societal context conducive to the rise of
populist politics and is able to take this societal context into account in the
analysis and interpretation of current problems in international affairs.
In terms of skills
•
Have improved the ability to apply common qualitative and quantitative
research methods and is able to apply these in the field of international affairs.
•
Have improved the ability to communicate clearly, fluently and accurately; as
well in a written report as in an oral presentation.
•
Have developed the ability to apply a multi-disciplinary perspective in his
analysis of international affairs.
In terms of attitude
•
The bachelor has an open and academic attitude, characterized by accuracy,
critical reflection and academic curiosity.
•
The bachelor is able to work in a multi-cultural team.
Teaching Method
This is a research-oriented course with a heavy reading requirement. Students will be
given the theoretical tools to examine a populist movement of their choice (either in
groups or individually, depending on class composition). Ex-cathedra teaching will be
combined with group discussions, short essays and other in-class activities.
Course Materials
The course will not use a textbook. The professor will provide all required readings.
2 Course Outline
Week
Topic
W1 – S1
Introduction to the Course: defining (liberal) democracy:
W1 – S2
Legal holiday – no class
W2 – S1
The liberal democratic recession and the return of authoritarianism
W2 – S2
Populism: pathological form, ideology or corrective for democracy?
W3 – S1
Other approaches: populism as a style, discourse and strategy
W3 – S2
Populism as an (anti)-intellectual movement: a romantic revival?
W4 – S1
Themes: globalization, immigration and foreign policy
W4 – S2
Culture: the postmodern shift in the western concept of truth
W5 – S1
Technology: post-truth culture and the network society
W5 – S2
Implications: international order, cyberspace and net-wars
W6 – S1
Presentations of Group/Individual Projects
W6 – S2
Presentations of Group/Individual Projects
W7
Final Exams
Detailed course schedule
Week 1 – Session 1 (May 23)
Introduction
•
Introduction to the course: objectives, schedule and assignments
Defining (liberal) democracy: history, theory and conditions
•
What is and what is not democracy? Principles and procedures that make
democracy possible. Liberal Democracy, Democratization and International
Order. Historical examination of waves of democratization.
3 Essential Readings
Dahl, R. A. (2000). On Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press, Ch. 4 & 5
Schmitter, P. C., & Karl, T. L. (1991). What democracy is. and is not. Journal of
Democracy. , 23, 75-88
Recommended Readings
Lipset, S.M. (1959). Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development
and Political Legitimacy. The American Political Science Review, Vol. 53, No.
1, pp. 69-105
Moore, B. (1967). Social origins of dictatorship and democracy. Boston, MA : Beacon
Press, Ch. VII
Schumpeter, J. A. (2006). Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. New York:
Routledge, Ch. XXI & XXII
Week 1 – Session 2 (May 25)
Legal Holiday – no class
\Week 2 – Session 1 (May 30)
The liberal democratic recession and the return of authoritarianism
•
The end of democratic transition, the end of democratization? Elections
without democracy. Democratic contestation and tensions. Non-democracies,
competitive authoritarianism, and illiberal democracies, pseudo-democracies
and hybrid regimes.
Essential Readings
Zakaria, F. (1997). The rise of illiberal democracy. Foreign Affairs. 76(6), pp. 22-43
Diamond, L. (January 01, 2002). Thinking About Hybrid Regimes. Journal of
Democracy, 13, 21-35
Recommended Readings
Carothers, T. (January 01, 2002). The end of the transition paradigm. Journal of
Democracy (print), 5-21
Levitsky, S., & Way, L. A. (January 01, 2002). The rise of competitive
authoritarianism. Journal of Democracy (print), 51-65
Diamond, L. (January 01, 2015). Facing Up to the Democratic Recession. Journal of
Democracy, 26, 1, 141-155
4 Week 2 – Session 2 (June 1)
Populism: pathological form, ideology or corrective for democracy?
•
Populism as a pathological form. Populism as a perennial possibility in
democracy. Populism as a political logic and legitimate revolt of the masses.
Populism as a thin-centered ideology. Characteristics and variations of left and
right populism in the West.
Essential Readings
Abts, K., & Rummens, S. (October 01, 2007). Populism versus democracy. Peace
Research Abstracts Journal, 44, 5.
Kaltwasser , C. R. (2012). The ambivalence of populism: threat and corrective for
democracy, Democratization, 19:2, 184-208
Canovan, M. (March 01, 1999). Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of
Democracy. Political Studies, 47, 1, 2-16
Recommended Readings
Laclau, E. (2007). On populist reason. New York: Verso, Ch 1 & 4
Schedler, A. (January 01, 1996). Anti-political-establishment Parties. Party
Politics, 2, 3, 291-312
Barr, R. (January 01, 2009). Populists, Outsiders and Anti-Establishment
Politics. Party Politics, 15, 1, 29-48
Mudde, C. (September 01, 2004). The Populist Zeitgeist. Government and
Opposition, 39, 4, 542-563
Week 3 – Session 1 (June 6)
Other approaches: populism as a style, discourse and strategy
•
Populism as a political style and as a discursive technique. Framing analysis
and populism. Populism and political communication. Populist mobilization.
Essential Readings
Hofstadter, R. (1964). The paranoid style in American politics. Harper’s Magazine
Moffitt, B., & Tormey, S. (June 01, 2014). Rethinking Populism: Politics, Mediatisation
and Political Style. Political Studies, 62, 2, 381-397
5 Recommended Readings
Jagers, J. & Walgrave, S. (2007). Populism as political communication style: An
empirical study of political parties' discourse in Belgium. European Journal of
Political Research, 46, 3, 319-345
Jansen, R. S. (2011). Populist Mobilization: A New Theoretical Approach to
Populism. Sociological Theory, 29, 2
Aslanidis, P. (April 01, 2016). Is Populism an Ideology? A Refutation and a New
Perspective. Political Studies, 64, 88-104
Week 3 – Session 2 (June 8)
Populism as an intellectual movement: a revival of political romanticism
•
The philosophy of Enlightenment. Rationalism, Empiricism and the concept of
truth in the Enlightenment. Romanticism as an attack on the Enlightenment.
Anti-elitism and anti-intellectualism: the lasting effects of Romanticism.
Political romanticism. Populism as a romantic revival.
Essential Readings
Outram, D. (2013). Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press, Ch. 1
Schmitt, C. (2011). Political romanticism. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1986, Ch. 2,
pp. 51-108
Recommended Readings
Berlin, I., & Hardy, H. (2001). The roots of romanticism. Princeton: Princeton Univ.
Press, Ch. 1, 2 & 7
Week 4 – Session 1 (June 13)
Themes: Globalization, immigration and foreign policy
•
From mercantilism to the dominance of the (neo)-liberal model. Globalization
and its discontents in the West. Anti-globalization movements and the return of
economic nationalism.
•
The anti-immigration discourse of the European far right. Anti-immigrant
frames and strategies in the European refugee crisis.
•
The foreign policy discourse of left and right populist parties. Anti-American
narratives and the rise of pro-Russian populism in Europe. Europeanism
versus Eurasianism.
6 Essential Readings
Polanyi, K. (1946). Origins of our time: The great transformation. London: V.
Gollancz, Chapters 12 & 13
Calhoun, Craig (2013) Occupy Wall Street in perspective. British journal of sociology,
64 (1). pp. 26-38
Recommended Readings
Hjerm, M., & Nagayoshi, K. (2011). The composition of the minority population as a
threat: Can real economic and cultural threats explain
xenophobia?. International Sociology, 26, 6, 815-843
Balfour, R. et al. (2016) ‘Europe’s Troublemakers: The Populist Challenge to Foreign
Policy’, European Policy Centre, Ch. 4 & 5
Week 4 – Session 2 (June 15)
Culture: the postmodern shift in the western concept of truth
•
Understanding the post-truth culture. From the absolute to the elusive: the
post-modern shift of the concept of truth in western societies. What is ‘new’
about fake news? The decline of truth and the rise of bullshit.
Essential Readings
Frankfurt, H. G. (2010). On bullshit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
Introduction
Jencks, C. (January 01, 1987). Postmodern and Late Modern: The Essential
Definitions. Chicago Review, 35, 4, 31-58
Recommended Readings
Harvey, D. (2008). The condition of postmodernity: An enquiry into the origins of
cultural change. Cambridge: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 3-65
Lyotard, J. F. (2010). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge.
Minneapolis, Minn: Univ. of Minnesota Press, Appendix: Answering the
question: what is postmodernism?
Baudrillard, J. (2008). Simulacra and simulation. Ann Arbor, Mich: Univ. of Michigan
Press, Chapter: On Nihilism
Week 5 – Session 1 (June 20)
Technology: post-truth culture and the network society
7 •
The revolution in information technology. The Network Society: the changing
concepts of space and time. Instant communication and social media. Facts,
emotions and the psychology of the network masses.
Essential Readings
Bimber, B. (January 01, 1998). The Internet and Political Transformation: Populism,
Community, and Accelerated Puralism. Polity, 31, 133
Hurwitz, R. (November 01, 1999). Who Needs Politics? Who Needs People? The
Ironies of Democracy in Cyberspace. Contemporary Sociology, 28, 6, 655-661
Recommended Readings
Castells, M. (2010). The information age: Economy, society, and culture. Volume I:
The Rise of the Network Society. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell,
pp. 28-76, 440-464 and 484-509
Gilbert, D. T. (January 01, 1991). How mental systems believe. American
Psychologist, 46, 2, 107-119
Week 5 – Session 2 (June 22)
Implications: international order, cyberspace and net-wars
•
From unipolar to multipolar international system. International competition in
the information domain. Cyberspace as a battle-space. Old wars and net-wars.
Information warfare, propaganda and wars of ideas.
Essential Readings
M, . M. M. E. (June 01, 2010). From Global Village to Virtual Battlespace: The
Colonizing of the Internet and the Extension of Realpolitik. International
Studies Quarterly, 54, 2, 381-401
Eriksson, E. A. (September 01, 1999). Viewpoint: Information warfare: Hype or
reality?. The Nonproliferation Review, 6, 3, 57-64
Recommended Readings
Hughes, R. (2010). A Treaty for Cyberspace. International Affairs, 86, 2, 523-541
Dugin, Alexander. The Fourth Political Theory (London: Arktos, 2012), pp. 11-31.
Millerman, M. (2014) ‘Theory Talk #66: Alexander Dugin on Eurasianism, the
Geopolitics of Land and Sea, and a Russian Theory of Multipolarity’
Week 6 – Session 1 and Session 2 (June 27 and June 29)
Presentations of group/individual project
Week 7 (exam date and time tbc)
Preparation and final exams
8 Course Assessment
The students will be evaluated on the basis of their performance as follows
•
QQCs
•
Group or
25%
Individual Paper
35%
•
Final examination
40%
•
TOTAL
100%
Description of Assignments and Grading Criteria
QQCs (25%): The course involves a demanding reading schedule and discussion
of assigned readings in class forms a major part of each session. In the beginning of
each lecture, the students will have to submit a Question, a Quote and a Comment
for each assigned reading. QQCs are designed to ensure student participation and a
structured, meaningful discussion of texts in the class. (The professor will provide a
template). Grading: 0.5 points for each QQC, plus bonus points for consistency.
Group/individual Research Paper (35%): Using the theoretical frameworks of
the literature presented and discussed in class, students will be asked to examine
one, two or more populist movements. The projects will examine the main narratives
and strategy of the populist actors along the following axes: reasons for emergence,
intellectual and cultural context, electoral base and targeted groups or constituencies,
narratives used in foreign policy-globalization-immigration, policy implications and
influence, stance on fake news, appeals to emotion and conspiracy theories. The
final format of this assignment will depend on final class size and composition.
Depending on class size, the groups may consist of two or three students; or, if class
is too small, the students may tackle the assignment with individual research papers.
Depending on class composition and language range the case studies can vary from
Brexit to Trump, from Russian foreign policy narratives to Le Pen’s French Front
National, etc. Week 6 of the course will be dedicated to the presentation of on-going
projects, discussion and exchange of ideas in the class. This will be an opportunity
for the students to get feedback from the professor and fellow students for their on-
9 going projects, with the primary purpose of sharpening the theoretical consistency,
the argument and focus on their own research papers. [Deadline for submission: end
of Week 6 (July 2), via Turnitin]
Final exam: will include 10 multiple choice questions (10%); two long open answers
on definitions and concepts approximately half a page each (20%); one long answer
comparing/contrasting theoretical approaches (30%); one longer essay, two pages
maximum (40%).
Detailed grading criteria and rubrics for each assignment to be provided
Grading Scale of Vesalius College
Vesalius College grading policy, in line with the Flemish Educational norms, is now
as stated follows:
Letter grade
Scale of 20
Scale of 100
A
17.0-20.0
85-100
A-
16.1-16.9
81-84
B+
15.3-16.0
77-80
B
14.5-15.2
73-76
B-
13.7-14.4
69-72
C+
13.1-13.6
66-68
C
12.3-13.0
62-65
C-
11.5-12.2
58-61
D+
10.7-11.4
54-57
D
10.0-10.6
50-53
F
0-9.9
0-49
Additional Course Policies
Late papers will not be accepted unless there are serious legitimate reasons.
Provision of a signed medical note is required, and notice must be given prior to the
deadline.
10 Academic Honesty Statement
Academic dishonesty is NOT tolerated in this course.
Academic honesty is not only an ethical issue but also the foundation of scholarship.
Cheating and plagiarism are therefore serious breaches of academic integrity.
Following the College policy, cheating and plagiarism cases will be communicated in
writing to the Associate Dean for Students and submitted to the Student Conduct
Committee for disciplinary action.
If you refer to someone else’s work, appropriate references and citations must be
provided. Grammar, spelling and punctuation count, so use the tools necessary to
correct before handing in assignments.
11