Populist Discourse

Reviews / Votes

Populist Discourse: Recasting Populism Research provides a bracing assessment of populism studies, offering an accessible and original account of developments in this field since populism first burst onto the political scene. As one of the leading scholars of the Essex School, Stavrakakis nails discourse theory firmly onto the map of contemporary populism research. He finally delivers the first comprehensive and authoritative book-length treatment of its kind since Laclau's On Populist Reason, bound to become a standard scholarly reference for years to come.

Jason Glynos, University of Essex, UK

An indispensable book illuminating the most controversial issue in contemporary politics: populism. Each chapter, masterfully organized around precisely targeted questions, allows one to navigate this field anew. The often complex theoretical fabric of discourse theory is here operationalized in order to inform and animate a robust methodology tackling heterogeneous phenomena in elucidating ways. And all this from a critical perspective that escapes from any Eurocentric attitude, revealing Stavrakakis as a truly global thinker.

Paula Biglieri, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Populist Discourse: Recasting Populism Research is a thoughtful and timely engagement with the phenomenon of populism. Yannis Stavrakakis dispels widespread misconceptions about populism and charts new directions for thinking about populism's relationship to democracy. None of the many books on populism written over the last decade exhibit the historical sensibility, empirical sensitivity, and analytical sharpness on display in Populist Discourse. A must read for scholars and the wider public as well.

John P. McCormick, University of Chicago, USA

[The] book is theoretically rich, dense, and detailed in its argumentation. Guiding questions and key themes appear in bold throughout each chapter, and this editorial choice results in helpful signposting for the academic and nonexpert reader alike, making the text a useful one for upper-level classroom teaching.

AndreaMcDonnell, Journal of Language and Politics

The book is short (178 pages), but covers a lot of ground and is organised in a way that makes the argument easy to follow. While it is accessible and clear and should be useful resource to anyone serious about understanding populism, it must be noted that it engages with many concepts, theories and schools of thought and thus requires either some preliminary knowledge of the subject or a willingness to go further. To do so, readers can build on the wealth of references provided and Stavrakakis's in-depth knowledge of the field."

Aurelien Mondon, PSA Populism Specialist Group Blog

Given the rapid growth of studies on populism, political research urgently requires a book of this nature. In Populist Discourse-Recasting Populism Research, the political theorist, Yannis Stavrakakis critiques the uncritical and oversimplified application of the term "populism" in political research, advocating for a more nuanced discursive approach.

Bianca Alighieri Luz Monteiro, Las Torres de Lucca. Revista internacional de filosofia politica

Yannis Stavrakakis manages to 'recast' populist research with extreme clarity and conviction in Populist Discourse, which offers an invaluable contribution to the field.

George Henry Newth, Perspectives on Politics