BOOK REVIEW: Populism as Meta Ideology & The Populist Style: Trump, Le Pen and Performances of the Far Right

Abstract

Populism has become one of the most dynamic concepts in the social sciences literature over the past two decades. Offering a significant analytical framework for explaining crises of representation and the transformation of contemporary forms of leadership within the discipline of Political Science, populism has been intensely debated at both the theoretical and empirical levels since 2010. During this period, populism has gained an interdisciplinary scope of research in interaction with sub-disciplines such as comparative politics and discourse analysis. In this context, besides studies focusing on the political strategies, rhetorical styles and behavioral repertoires of populist actors, the International Relations literature includes theoretical and empirical studies conducted on the global diffusion of populism (Ramos and Torres 2020; Kaltwasser and Sandoval 2024), its effects on foreign policy decisionmaking processes (Destradi, Cadier and Plagemann 2025) and challenging stances towards international institutions (Spandler and Söderbaum 2023). Today, populism continues to be the subject of multidisciplinary studies as a multidimensional concept. Themes such as the definition of populism, its ideological content and impact on democracy as well as its global rise have been addressed within the framework of varying theoretical approaches.

Keywords

Populism

Citation

Akçay, M. C. 2026. Review of Populism as Meta Ideology, by Kire Sharlamanov, and The Populist Style: Trump, Le Pen and Performances of the Far Right, by Théo Aiolfi. Uluslararası İlişkiler, Advanced Online Publication, 5 August 2026: 1–10. DOI: 10.33458/uidergisi.2007218

Affiliations

Mesut Can Akçay Ph.D, Independent Researcher E-Mail: [email protected] Orcid: 0000-0003-4375-8228