Abstract

Populism is a widely used communicative strategy in politics that seems to have become more and more important in recent years. Since the mid-1980s populism has entered the political stage of some established Western democracies; to name but a few: Jörg Haider (Austria’s Freedom Party) in Austria; Jean-Marie Le Pen (Front National) in France; Silvio Berlusconi (Forza Italia) in Italy; Josef Blocher (Swiss People’s Party) in Switzerland; and Geert Wilders (Freedom Party) in the Netherlands. Their success has been perceived by some scholars as a typical symptom of fundamental political transformation or political crisis (Taggart 2000: 5), or reflective of disen-chantment with established, ‘old-fashioned’ political parties (Mudde 1996). However, populism is not only a symptom of crisis but also a strategy of managing communicative relationships.