COURSE INFORMATION Course Title: POPULISM

Code	Course Type	Regular Semester	Theory	Practice	Lab	Credits	ECTS
PIR 368	B	6	3	0	0	3	6

Academic staff member responsible for the design of the course syllabus (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature)	Dr. Avdi Smajljaj asmajljaj@epoka.edu.al
Main Course Lecturer (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	Dr. Avdi Smajljaj asmajljaj@epoka.edu.al
Second Course Lecturer(s) (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	NA
Language:	English
Compulsory/Elective:	Elective
Study program: (the study for which this course is offered)	Bachelor in Political Science and International Relations (3 years)
Classroom and Meeting Time:
Teaching Assistant(s) and Office Hours:	NA
Code of Ethics:	Code of Ethics of EPOKA University Regulation of EPOKA University "On Student Discipline"
Attendance Requirement:
Course Description:	Populism is one of the political buzzwords of the early 21st century. It is central to current debates about politics, from radical right parties in Europe to left-wing presidents in Latin America to the Tea Party, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the United States. But populism is also one of the most contested concepts in the social sciences. In line with a growing body of literature, populism should be defined in ideational terms, i.e., as a worldview that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic camps, “the pure people” versus “the corrupt elite,” and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volont´e g´en´erale (general will) of the people. This course will provide an introduction to populism in theory and practice. The first part of the course will discuss how scholars from different parts of the world studied populism since this phenomenon entered the political and social science agenda in the late 1960s. Is populism an ideology? A strategy? A style of politics? A certain type of discourse? Something else? And, crucially, who are “the people” in populism? Could we, possibly, re-conceptualize pop ulism in a way that is at the same time minimal and with sufficient discriminatory power, politically relevant, analytically compelling, operationally feasible, and clearly pointing to an opposite pole?
Course Objectives:	Beyond defining populism, this course also examines this phenomenon in the entirety of its geographical variants. Populism is an omnipresent, multifaceted, and ideologically boundless phenomenon. What distinguishes its various manifestations in Europe, Latin America, the United States, and elsewhere across time (old vs. new populisms), region (western vs. eastern; but also Nordic, Baltic, and Southern European), regime type in which they develop (democracy vs. non-democracy), and ideological hue (right vs. left populisms)? A second part of this course will look at actual populist strategies, how populist leaders gain their appeal, what social conditions increase the likelihood of a populist victory, how populists gain and maintain power. What are the determinants of voting motivation for populist parties? And how do they differ from mainstream parties? This course will also examine what happens once populists come into office, as has happened several times in both Europe and Latin America? Cases such as Hungary, Greece and Venezuela are studied in order to understand the way in which populism comes to power and governs.

BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE COURSE

1	populism as ideational approach
2	populism as thin-centered strategy
3	left-right populism
4	populist discourse

COURSE OUTLINE

Week	Topics
1	Introduction to the course
2	Theories and concepts of populism. Mudde, Cas. 2018. Populism. An Ideational Approach. in Kaltwasser, C.R., Taggart, P.A., Espejo, P.O. and Ostiguy, P. eds., 2017. The Oxford handbook of populism. Oxford University Press. Kaltwasser, C.R., Taggart, P.A., Espejo, P.O. and Ostiguy, P. eds., 2017. The Oxford handbook of populism. Oxford University Press. Introduction (skim) Mudde, Cas. 2004. ”The Populist Zeitgeist.” Government and Opposition 39(4): 542-63. Canovan, Margaret. 1999. ”Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy.” Political Studies 47(1): 1-16. Rooduijn, Matthijs. 2014. ”The Nucleus of Populism: In Search of the Lowest Common De nominator.” Government and Opposition 49(4): 572-98. Plattner, Marc F. 2009. Populism, Pluralism, and Liberal Democracy. Journal of Democracy, 21(1), 81-92. Krastev, Ivan. 2007. ”The Strange Death of the Liberal Consensus.” Journal of Democracy 18(4): 56-63. 4 Mounk, Yascha. 2014. ”Pitchfork Politics: The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy.” For eign Affairs (5 September/October): 27-36. Rosario Aguilar and Ryan Carlin. 2018. “Populist voters: the role of voter authoritarianism and ideology” in Hawkins, K. A., Carlin, R. E., Littvay, L., and Kaltwasser, C. R. (eds.). The Ideational Approach to Populism: Concept, Theory, and Analysis. Routledge.
3	Populism and nationalism. De Cleen, B., 2017. Populism and nationalism (pp. 342-362). Kaltwasser, C.R., Taggart, P.A., Espejo, P.O. and Ostiguy, P. eds., The Oxford handbook of populism. Oxford University Press. Fukuyama, Francis. 2018. The Rise of Populist Nationalism.
4	Roots of the populist surge. Barr, R. R. 2009. ”Populists, Outsiders and Anti-Establishment Politics.” Party Politics 15(1): 29-48. Hawkins, Kirk A. 2003. ”Populism in Venezuela: The Rise of Chavismo.” Third World Quarterly 24(6): 1137-60.
5	Populism and the economic crisis. Kriesi, Hanspeter. 2014. ”The Populist Challenge.” West European Politics 37(2): 361-78. Mair, Peter. 2006. ”Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy.” New Left Review (42): 25-51. Moffitt, Benjamin. 2014. ”How to Perform Crisis: A Model for Understanding the Key Role of Crisis in Contemporary Populism.” Government and Opposition: 1-29. Pappas, Takis S. and Hanspeter Kriesi. 2015. ”Populism and Crisis: A Fuzzy Relationship.” in European Populism in the Shadow of the Great Recession, edited by H. Kriesi and T. S. Pappas. ECPR Press. Rodrik, Dani. 2018. Is Populism Necessarily Bad Economics?. AEA Papers and Proceedings 2018, 108: 196–199.
6	Populists in government. Luther, K. R. 2011. ”Of Goals and Own Goals: A Case Study of Right-Wing Populist Party Strategy for and During Incumbency.” Party Politics 17(4): 453-70. Pappas, Takis S. 2014. ”Populist Democracies: Post-Authoritarian Greece and Post-Communist Hungary.” Government and Opposition 49(1): 1-23.
7	Populist discourse and leadership. Pappas, Takis S. 2008. ”Political Leadership and the Emergence of Radical Mass Movements in Democracy.” Comparative Political Studies 41(8): 1117-40. Tismaneanu, Vladimir. 2000. ”Hypotheses on Populism: The Politics of Charismatic Protest.” East European Politics and Societies 15(1): 10-17. Jagers, Jan and Stefaan Walgrave. 2007. ”Populism as Political Communication Style: An Empiri cal Study of Political Parties’ Discourse in Belgium.” European Journal of Political Research 46(3): 319-45. Rajacic, Agnes. 2007. ”Populist Construction of the Past and Future: Emotional Campaign ing in Hungary between 2002 and 2006.” East European Politics and Societies 21(4): 639-60.
8	Populism and voting behavior. Akkerman, A., C. Mudde and A. Zaslove. 2013. ”How Populist Are the People? Measuring Populist Attitudes in Voters.” Comparative Political Studies. Ivarsflaten, E. 2007. ”What Unites Right-Wing Populists in Western Europe?: Re-Examining Grievance Mobilization Models in Seven Successful Cases.” Comparative Political Studies 41(1): 3-23. Lupu, N. 2010. ”Who Votes for Chavismo? Class Voting in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela.” Latin American Research Review 45(1): 7-32.
9	Midterm
10	Populism in US and Latine America. Wendy Rahn. 2018. “Populism in the US: the evolution of the Trump constitutency” in Hawkins, K. A., Carlin, R. E., Littvay, L., and Kaltwasser, C. R. (eds.). The Ideational Approach to Pop ulism: Concept, Theory, and Analysis. Routledge. Oliver, J. E., and Rahn, Wendy. 2016. “Rise of the Trumpenvolk: Populism in the 2016 Elec tion.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 667(1), 189-206. Weyland, Kurt. 2001. ”Clarifying a Contested Concept: Populism in the Study of Latin American Politics.” Comparative Politics 34(1): 1-22. Ioannis Andreadis et al. 2018. “Conditional populist voting in Chile, Greece, Spain, and Bo livia” Hawkins, K. A., Carlin, R. E., Littvay, L., and Kaltwasser, C. R. (eds.). The Ideational Approach to Populism: Concept, Theory, and Analysis. Routledge.
11	Populism in Western Europe. Matthew Goodwin. 2015. “The Great Recession and the Rise of Populist Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom. in European Populism in the Shadow of the Great Recession, edited by H. Kriesi and T. S. Pappas. ECPR Press. Hans-Georg Betz. 2018. “The Revenge of the Ploucs: The Revival of Radical Populism under Marine Le Pen in France”. in European Populism in the Shadow of the Great Recession, edited by H. Kriesi and T. S. Pappas. ECPR Press. Giuliano Bobba and Duncan McDonnell. 2018. “Italy: A Strong and Enduring Market for Populism” in European Populism in the Shadow of the Great Recession, edited by H. Kriesi and T. S. Pappas. ECPR Press. Horowitz, Jason, Italy and E.U. Reach a Budget Deal, as Populist Plan Runs Into Reality, The Washington Post. Takis Pappas and Paris Aslanidis. 2018. “Greek Populism: A Political Drama in Five Acts” in European Populism in the Shadow of the Great Recession, edited by H. Kriesi and T. S. Pappas. ECPR Press.
12	Populism in Eastern Europe. Stanley, Ben. 2018. Populism in Central and Eastern Europe. Kaltwasser, C.R., Taggart, P.A., Espejo, P.O. and Ostiguy, P. eds., The Oxford handbook of populism. Oxford University Press.
13	Populism in the Western Balkans. Handouts will be provided.
14	Course revision

Prerequisite(s):
Textbook(s):	Kaltwasser, C.R., Taggart, P.A., Espejo, P.O. and Ostiguy, P. eds., 2019. The Oxford Handbook of populism. Oxford University Press. Reinhard Heinisch and Christina Holtz-Bacha Oscar Mazzoleni [eds.] 2021. Political Populism Handbook of Concepts, Questions and Strategies of Research. Nomos. Michael Oswald(eds.) - The Palgrave Handbook of Populism. 2022. Palgrave Macmillan.
Additional Literature:
Laboratory Work:
Computer Usage:
Others:	No

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

1	examine key concepts and theories that describe and explain the current phenomenon of populism
2	explore this concept in a comparative perspective drawing on the populist experience across the globe
3	practice research and analytical skills through two short papers on different aspects of pop ulism
4	comprehend the knowledge about populism dynamics in the region
5	explore various forms of populism
6	explore relationship between populism and democracy and liberal democracy

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO... PROGRAM COMPETENCIES (Blank : no contribution, 1: least contribution ... 5: highest contribution)

No	Program Competencies	Cont.
Bachelor in Political Science and International Relations (3 years) Program
1	Having and using advanced knowledge and comprehension supported by textbooks including actual knowledge in political sciences and international relations literature, materials and the other scientific resources.	5
2	Analyzing data, ideas and concepts of current political issues and international relations, determining complex events and topics, making discussions and developing new suggestions in accordance with researches.	5
3	Having knowledge and thought about actual topics and problems together with their historical, social and cultural aspects.	5
4	Introducing those who are interested in politics and international events with the topics of Political Science and IR and teaching clearly the problems and the types of solutions.	5
5	Improving skills of working together with the main social science disciplines and other disciplines which are related to Political Science and International Relations.	5
6	Improving critical thinking and skills in making research independently.	5
7	Developing solutions about the problems and conflicts which are common in national and international arena.	5
8	Improving skills for leadership and research and analyze capacity of those who is responsible with national and international ones.	5
9	Knowing any foreign language enough to communicate with colleagues and understand actual researches and articles.	5
10	Gaining IT skills to use computer and technology) in order to reach actual knowledge.	3
11	Gaining skills to follow societal, scientific and ethic values during collecting, interpreting, conducting of data related to social and political developments.	5
12	Having consciousness about human rights and environment.	5
13	Gaining the skills to follow actual developments and pursue long-life learning.	5

COURSE EVALUATION METHOD

Method	Quantity	Percentage
Midterm Exam(s)	1	30
Presentation	1	10
Project	1	10
Final Exam	1	40
Attendance		10
	Total Percent:	100%

ECTS (ALLOCATED BASED ON STUDENT WORKLOAD)

Activities	Quantity	Duration(Hours)	Total Workload(Hours)
Course Duration (Including the exam week: 16x Total course hours)	16	3	48
Hours for off-the-classroom study (Pre-study, practice)	16	2	32
Mid-terms	1	14	14
Assignments			0
Final examination	1	16	16
Other	2	20	40
Total Work Load:			150
Total Work Load/25(h):			6
ECTS Credit of the Course:			6

CONCLUDING REMARKS BY THE COURSE LECTURER