Product details
- Categories: Governance & Politics
- Publisher: PLUTO PRESS
- ISBN: 9780745337630
- Publication Date: 01/05/2021
- Binding: Paperback
- Number of pages: 192
- Language: English
Summary
This book evaluates the transformational process of left populism across
grassroots, national and European levels and asks what we can do to
harness the power of broad-based, popular left politics. While the right
is using populist rhetoric to great effect, the left's attempts have
been much less successful. Syriza in Greece and Jeremy Corbyn's Labour
Party in Britain have both failed to introduce socialism in their
countries, while Podemos has had better fortune in Spain and is now in
government with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.
Bringing a wealth of experience in political organising, Marina
Prentoulis argues that left populism is a political logic that brings
together isolated demands against a common enemy. She looks at how
egalitarian pluralism could transform economic and political
institutions in a radical, democratic direction.
But each party does this differently, and the key to understanding where
to go from here lies in a serious analysis of the roots of each
movement's base, the forms of party organisation, and the particular
national contexts. This book is a clear and holistic approach to left
populism that will inform anyone wanting to understand and move forward
positively in a bleak time for the left in Europe.
Table of contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Why Left Populism?
1. The Politics of Left Populism after the Global Financial Crisis
2. Grassroots Resistance, Austerity and the ‘Populist Moment’
3. Creating a Party for the Twenty-First Century: New Parties, New Structures?
4. Left Populism at Elections: Rhetoric and Programmes
5. The Institutionalisation of the Populist Promise
6. Europe and Its ‘Peoples’: Negotiating Sovereignty
Conclusion: Where We Are Today with Left Populism
Notes
Index