Populism as Governmental Practice illustrates how populism functions as a phenomenon of power and draws attention to the brighter and darker consequences of populist rule for ordinary people across the world via bottom-up analyses of populist experiences of government in remarkably different national contexts including Turkey, Venezuela, Greece, India, Philippines, Egypt, and the United States.

By proposing an understanding of politics that is broader than the one embraced in current populism research, it focuses on a realm stretching beyond the electoral high politics of ideas/ideologies, discourses, public performances/styles, and mobilization efforts. The book theorizes populism as a responsive political/governmental practice in congruence with the material and symbolic expectations of populist audiences and analyses it as a rich praxis of governing people and things that is blurring the boundaries between public and the private as well as formal and the informal while embracing swiftness in temporal terms.

Through an interpretive perspective focusing on the bounded rationalities and moral economies embedded in the populist rule and popular obeyance to it, this book would appeal to researchers and students of politics and its sub-disciplines as well as to the non-expert audience curious about the micro dynamics of populist rule.

About the Author

Toygar Sinan Baykan is an Assistant Professor of Politics at Kirklareli University in Turkey. His main areas of expertise are populism, party politics, party-voter linkages, and Turkish politics. He published reviews and articles in journals such as Party Politics, Democratization, Mediterranean Politics, and Third World Quarterly. He is the author of the monograph Justice and Development Party in Turkey: Populism, Personalism, Organization (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and he contributed to the volume Populism in Global Perspective (Routledge, 2021) with an analysis of contemporary populism in Turkey.

Reviews

"This is an original and welcome theoretical and comparative contribution. Professor Baykan's volume shows the advantages of focusing on the deeds and performative practices of populist micro politics that seek immediacy, responsiveness, and short-term effectiveness. Populism as Governmental Practice weaves together how day-to-day interactions between populist political machines and deprived constituencies are based on personalism and clientelism. The volume illustrates how populist policies in Turkey, Venezuela, Greece, India, the Philippines, Egypt, and the U.S. offer immediate material and symbolic rewards over long term solutions."

Carlos de la Torre, University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies, U.S.

"The study of populism often centers on its role as an oppositional political force. In this book, Toygar Sinan Baykan makes important contributions to our understanding of populism in power, as a form of government practice. The book sheds new light on the distinctive features of populist governing practices, and the tools adopted by populists to administer their authority. This is a most welcome addition to scholarly debates regarding populism's political style and its implications for democratic governance."

Kenneth Roberts, Cornell University, U.S.

Book Information
ISBN 9781032279145
Author Toygar Sinan Baykan
Format Hardback
Page Count 276
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g