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Parties, Populism, and Anti-Establishment Politics in East Central Europe
- SAIS Review of International Affairs
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 27, Number 1, Winter-Spring 2007
- pp. 49-62
- 10.1353/sais.2007.0021
- Article
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Populism is a dynamic phenomenon. Yet scholars studying populism in post-communist Europe have often treated their topic as static. For example, in the 1990s researchers concentrated on the idea of a politically scary marriage of populism with nationalism, without allowing for variation or complexity among individual cases. This text contends that populism in East Central Europe (ECE) should be treated as a dynamic phenomenon in which radical ideological components are becoming overshadowed by pure anti-establishment appeal. It explores ECE populism through Western-developed populism frameworks. Finally, it argues that in this context populism's strong anti-establishment posture is based on blaming the post-communist mainstream for its political and moral misconduct, rather than on the challenges inherent in the democratic transition.