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No. XLIV/1 (2022)
Articles

Rethinking populism and its threats and possibilities

Ponowne zastanowienie się nad populizmem – jego wyzwaniami i możliwościami

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  • Russell Hogg
Russell Hogg
Adjunct Professor, Centre for Justice, Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7420/AK2021.22

Published 2023-02-15

Keywords

  • populism,
  • liberalism,
  • neo-liberalism,
  • post-democracy

How to Cite

Hogg, R. (2023). Rethinking populism and its threats and possibilities: Ponowne zastanowienie się nad populizmem – jego wyzwaniami i możliwościami. Archives of Criminology, (XLIV/1), 15–38. https://doi.org/10.7420/AK2021.22
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

Resurgent populism – with crime as a core theme - is depicted as a dangerous perversion of liberal democracy. But by avoiding a definition of populism, critics tend to simply conflate populism with contemporary right-wing authoritarianism. Academic analysis, including criminological, is not free of such tendencies. After a brief consideration of criminology’s engagement with penal populism and the recent spread of a more far-reaching authoritarian political populism, the article argues for the need to more carefully conceptualise populism. Theoretical clarity is needed for assessing the character of contemporary populism; for grasping its drivers in, for example, neo-liberal globalization and what Crouch calls “post democracy”; and for discerning its possible future trajectories, progressive as well as regressive. It is also argued that simple denunciations of populism often reflect a complacent liberal mentality that contributes to political disaffection fuelling populist movements, and overlooks legitimate grievances, including the (often criminal) failings of liberal institutions. Rather than being a political aberration, populism, it is argued, should be seen as a “normal” dimension of democratic politics with implications for criminal policy (as well as politics at large).

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