International Populism Research Network

ABOUT THE NETWORK

The International Populism Research Network is based in the Political Theory, History of Ideas and Political Culture section at Kiel University (CAU Kiel). It serves as a platform to facilitate international exchange and initiate publication and research projects on the subject of populism.

The network’s activities are centered on new theoretical, qualitative and quantitative approaches to studying the phenomenon of populism worldwide.

It is open to other social science and humanities disciplines beyond the field of political science, such as sociology, philosophy, cultural, media and literature studies, ethnology, visual studies, performance studies, law and history.

The International Populism Research Network organizes academic events (both in-person and online) at CAU Kiel and in collaboration with partner institutes. These include academic conferences, workshops and panels at national and international conferences, international teaching collaborations and events for the general public.

The International Populism Research Network conducts its own research projects and supports doctoral and post doc projects.

It disseminates its research findings in the form of scientific publications and publicizes the core work of its partner organizations.

To give its activities additional visibility, the International Populism Research Network also communicates with the broader public.

Panel discussion with Paula Diehl and Sabine Kropp

Federalism – an Obstacle to or a Chance for Populism?

Organizer: Vertretung des Landes Baden-Württemberg beim Bund + Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung (EZFF)

Location: Vertretung des Landes Baden-Württemberg beim Bund, Tiergartenstraße 15, 10785 Berlin

Date: Montag, 17. November 2025 17:00 bis 20:30 Uhr

Mit dem Jahrbuch des Föderalismus 2025 legt das Europäische Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung Tübingen (EZFF) den 26. Band dieser Reihe vor. Das diesjährige Schwerpunktthema des Jahrbuchs ist Föderalismus und Populismus.

Über das Thema „Föderalismus – Hemmnis oder Chance für den Populismus“ diskutieren Frau Prof. Dr. Paula Diehl und Frau Prof. Dr. Sabine Kropp unter der Moderation von Frau Prof. Dr. Gabriele Abels. Ulrich Aierstock, stv. Dienststellenleiter der Landesvertretung Baden-Württemberg, eröffnet den Abend.

Seit dem Jahr 2000 bietet das Jahrbuch als thematisch breit angelegtes Kompendium stets einen aktuellen, verlässlichen und zusammenfassenden Überblick über die verschiedenen Aspekte föderaler und regionaler Strukturen, nicht nur in Deutschland, sondern auch in anderen europäischen Staaten. Von besonderem Interesse ist das Jahrbuch für Politik und Verwaltung; es ist aber auch in Wissenschaft und Forschung, Lehre und Studium fest etabliert.

Lecture by Dr. Mattias Lehtinen

„The Crisis of Political Imagination“

On 4 November 2025, Dr Mattias Lehtinen held a lecture on „The Crisis of Political Imagination“ in the context of the lecture series „Krise und Politik“ organized by Prof.in Dr. Paula Diehl.

What happens when societies lose the capacity to imagine political alternatives, when societies block alternatives or when the only alternatives that are produced are antidemocratic? In his lecture on the crisis of political imagination, Mattias Lehtinen explored these different aspects of the contemporary crisis of political imagination in a situation where our collective political creativity is increasingly constrained by neoliberal rationality and the normalization of illiberal and far-right politics. Through linking three interconnected diagnoses, the erosion of invention, the failure of institutionalization, and the normative misdirection of imagination, he traced how imagination has shifted from a collective, democratic force to a privatized one that can be seen as linked to the reconstitution of heteronomous political projects.

Mattias Lehtinen is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Practical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki and currently a visiting scholar at the Political Theory, History of Ideas and Political Culture section at Kiel University.

The International Populism Research Network at the APSA 2025

Panel 1: Populism, “The People,” and Democracy: Insights from the Latin American Experience

Chair: Kenneth Roberts

Presentations:

Carlos de la Torre (University of Florida): Reimaging Populism and the People: Lessons from Latin America
Paula Diehl (University of Kiel): Populism and the Tipping Point of Democracy
Lisa Zanotti (Diego Portales University): The Authoritarian Feedback Loop: Rethinking the Populist Radical Right Beyond Nativism
Kenneth M. Roberts (Cornell University): The People as a Political Subject in Comparative Historical Perspective

Comments:

Jason Frank (Cornell University)
Kurt Weyland (University of Texas at Austin)

Panel 2: Populism, Demagoguery, and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective

Chair: Rob Goodman

Speakers:

Paula Diehl (University of Kiel)
Rob Goodman (Toronto Metropolitan University)
Tae-Yeoun Keum (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Simon Lambek (University of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia)
Cary Nederman (Texas A&M University)
David Ragazzoni (University of Toronto)

Learn more about the edited volume.

Learn more about the APSA Annual Meeting’s programme.

Open Access Article

Investigating the global dynamics of populism: The International Populism Research Network

In the current volume of Kiel University’s journal „Christiana Albertina“, Paula Diehl and Helge Petersen offer insights into the research and outreach activities of the International Populism Research Network.

LEIBNIZ RESEARCH ALLIANCE “VALUE OF THE PAST”
– ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2025

LEIBNIZ RESEARCH ALLIANCE “VALUE OF THE PAST” – ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2025

Right-wing populism and the far right have once again become a central political force − in Europe and across the globe. A core element of their politics is the attempt to revise and redefine history. However, there are few comparative works on how right-wing and radical right populists interpret, reinterpret and instrumentalize the past in pan-European and global perspectives. The conference will bring together expertise from different European countries, and it will also look at right-wing populist movements and far-right thinking in the US, India, and Japan.

New documentary by the UNPOP project

Populism: Performing Democracy: Collective Emotions, Political Narratives and Social Identities

The UNPOP project (UNpacking POPulism: Comparing the formation of emotion narratives and their effects on political behaviour) has recently published an exciting documentary with the title „Populism: Performing Democracy: Collective Emotions, Political Narratives and Social Identities“ (Portugal, 2024, 17 minutes).

The documentary features interventions by Tereza Capelos, Paolo Cossarini, Paula Diehl, João Figueiredo, Cristiano Gianolla, Gaia Giuliani, George Marcus, Lisete Mónico, and Emilia Palonen.

The documentary was one of nine documentaries selected for the 1st ISA Sociological Film Festival. It was screened on 7 July at the 5th ISA Forum in Rabat.

It is now made publicly available for viewing and can be used for private study, public sociology, lecturing, dissemination and public debate on a highly relevant topic.

You can access and share it through this link.

Ruth Wodak in conversation with the Catholic Social Academy of Austria (in German)

How can one decipher right-wing populism, Ruth Wodak?

On the language of division and how to oppose it

Wir sprechen mit der Sprachwissenschaftlerin Ruth Wodak über die Sprache des Rechtspopulismus: Wie – und warum – wird politische Sprache, die auf Ausgrenzung anderer basiert, gesellschaftlich normalisiert? Ist diese Art der Kommunikation ausschließlich im rechtsextremen Lager zu finden oder auch in anderen politischen Gruppierungen? Und: Wie kann man – im Sinne des Sozialen Friedens – einer Sprache entgegentreten, die teilen, ausgrenzen und agitieren möchte?

Das Gespräch fand im Rahmen des Podcasts „Der Sozialkompass: Ein Podcast über gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen und Lösungswege“ der Katholischen Sozialakademie Österreichs statt.

New Book by Théo Aiolfi

The Populist Style: Trump, Le Pen and Performances of the Far Right

Through a comparative case study analysing the 2016 and 2017 presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen, The Populist Style examines the links between far-right ideology and populism. Adopting an interdisciplinary framework combining political science and performance studies, this book develops a critical definition of populism as a style, that is, as a repertoire of political performances that shapes and is given shape by ideological content.

The book was published in January 2025 by Edinburgh University Press. For more information on the book (including access and purchase options), click here.

New Book by Christoffer Kølvraa and Bernhard Forchtner

Imagining Alternative Worlds: Far-Right Fiction and the Power of Cultural Imaginaries

The book explores how the far right employs fictionality as a powerful political tool in the 21st century. It does so by examining the far right’s own cultural production and commentary through a large collection of its novels, novellas, short stories, and film reviews, illustrating how the ‘alternative worlds’ articulated in such cultural products convey its ideology. More specifically, the book identifies and analyses four distinct far-right cultural imaginaries – a ‘primordial’, a ‘nostalgic’, a ‘promethean’, and a ‘nihilist’ one – that each subtly conveys different yet linked ideas about space, time, ‘race’, gender, and heroic identity.

By drawing attention to the cultural heterogeneity of the contemporary far right, Imagining Alternative Worlds offers key insights into the dreams, identities, and norms such actors hope will define our future.

The book was published on 11 November 2024 by Routledge. More information on the book (including access and purchase options) can be found here.

Interview with Paula Diehl in Deutschlandfunk

Populism and the Rule of Law

In the Deutschlandfunk magazine „Europe today“, Paula Diehl discussed which role scepticism about political institutions and the instrumentalization of the rule of law plays in populism. The interview was conducted by Katharina Peetz.

Open access Article

Emotion Narratives on the Political Culture of Radical Right Populist Parties in Portugal and Italy

„Emotion Narratives on the Political Culture of Radical Right Populist Parties in Portugal and Italy“. In: Politics and Governance, 2024, Vol. 12.

Authors: Gianolla, C., Mónico, L., & Cruz, M.

Issue: Vol 12 (2024): Challenging Democracy: How Do Ideas of Populists and Disenchanted Citizens Align? (In Progress)

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