In Populism and Passions, twelve scholars engage with discourse analysis, democratic theory, and post structural political thought to study the political logic of passion for contemporary populism. Together these interdisciplinary essays demonstrate what emotional engagement implies for the spheres of politics and the social, and how it governs and mobilizes individuals. The volume presents:

• Theoretical and empirical implications for political analysis;
• Chapters on the current rise of populism, both right and left-wing trends, their different ideological features, and their relationship with the logic of passion;
• Theoretical implications for the future study of populism and democratic legitimacy.

A timely analysis of this political phenomena in contemporary Western democracies, Populism and Passions is ideal for students and scholars in political theory, comparative politics, social theory, critical theory, cultural studies, and global studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Populism, democracy, and the logic of passion.
Paolo Cossarini and Fernando Vallespín

Part 1. Ordering the Political Realm

Chapter 1. Political Affects in the Neuroscientific Age.
Manuel Arias Maldonado

Chapter 2. Populisms and Emotions
Nicolas Demertzis

Chapter 3. Populism versus Technocracy: Performance, Passions, and Aesthetics
Benjamin Moffitt

Part 2. Passionate Logic and Discourses in Times of Austerity

Chapter 4. Our Damned Weakness: Tensions between Reason and Emotion in Podemos
Emmy Eklundh

Chapter 5. The Political Logic of Populist Hype: The Case of Right-wing Populism’s ‘Meteoric Rise’ and its Relation to the Status Quo
Jason Glynos and Aurelien Mondon

Chapter 6. Populism and the Use of Tropes
Paulina Tambakaki

Chapter 7. Emotions and the Left in Denmark. Towards Left-Wing and Mainstream Populism
Óscar García Agustín

Part 3. Passions and Democratic Legitimacy

Chapter 8. Filling the Vacuum? Passion, ‘the People’, and Affective Communities
Paolo Cossarini

Chapter 9. Passion, Excess, and Fear of the Mob - Populism as Ideology
Simon Tormey

Chapter 10. Populism and the Restructuring of the Public Sphere
Fernando Vallespín and Máriam Martínez-Bascuñán