Populism and its Consequences for Liberal Democracy

A student who has completed the course should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student can

• display an understanding of the concepts of populism in terms of competing definitions and main dimensions.
• gain knowledge about the historical roots of populism and its importance for contemporary populist parties and movements.
• gain an understanding of the parallel waves of extra-parliamentary activism that has spread throughout Western Europe.
• demonstrate an ability to distinguish between different types of populism and how these relate to different models of democracy (e.g. liberal democracy and direct democracy).
• display an understanding of the most important consequences of populism for liberal democracy, in Europe and elsewhere.

Skills

The student is able to

• acquire a basis for critical and independent analysis of how the growth of populist parties affect representative liberal democracies in terms of political trust, polarization, and conceptions of democracy.
• acquire basic knowledge of cross-national similarities and differences when it comes to populist parties and movements.
• acquire insight into cross-temporal and cross-national ideological similarities and differences between present day parties and movements and those of earlier eras.

General competence

The student

• is able to synthesize theoretical and empirical material on a given topic relevant to the course readings and topics