Populism: Its Meanings And National Characteristics

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Condition: Good. Jacket: No dust jacket - paperback. Page Condition: Yellowed, tanning. Markings: Previous owner. Binding condition: Binding intact.

Few political phenomena have proven as enduring and as contested as populism — a force that has toppled governments, reshaped democracies, and defied easy definition across centuries and continents. This landmark edited volume brings together leading scholars to dissect the concept of populism from multiple angles, examining its diverse national manifestations from agrarian Russia to Latin America, North America, and beyond, arguing that populism is not a single ideology but a recurring political syndrome with shifting faces. The contributors present rigorous comparative analyses that chart how populist movements arise, what they promise, and why they so often unsettle the established political order. Edited by two of the twentieth century's most incisive political thinkers, Ghita Ionescu and Ernest Gellner, this collection stands as a foundational text in political science and sociology. Gellner's philosophical precision and Ionescu's deep knowledge of comparative politics together shape a work that is both analytically demanding and historically rich. Part of the prestigious The Nature of Human Society series published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, the volume raises questions about democracy, legitimacy, and mass politics that remain as urgent today as when they were first posed — leaving the reader to wonder whether populism is democracy's shadow or its mirror.