A study of the rising popularity of populism and the misconceptions surrounding it
Populism may come across as little more than an extreme form of national belonging 末 nationalism run wild so to speak 末 a case for
national psychologists or a kind of collective pathology. However, as so often, appearances are deceptive.
Paradoxes of Populism argues that the far-from-random similarities with ordinary manifestations of nationalism should be approached not as a venture into
the classical structures of nation-states and identities, but as a disruptive and destabilising consequence of some of the constituent
elements of sovereign nation-states becoming eroded and prised apart by contextual global processes and their agents. Hence,
populism in all its varieties 末 and there are many, as the book demonstrates 末 is riddled with even more paradoxes and
inconsistencies than mainstream nationalism itself: confusing causes and appearances, realities and fantasies, and turning the
world inside out. The age of populism is truly the Second Coming of nationalism, and it has come with a vengeance. Its advent,
however, happens in the background of real problems for millions of ordinary people in liberal-democratic states. This book sets out
to engage with these real-world challenges as well as their political and cultural interpretations in the populist fantasia.
