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Research seminar

Technopopulism

The New Logic of Democratic Politics

Add to calendar 2021-11-23 14:30 2021-11-23 18:00 Europe/Rome Technopopulism Hybrid (Refectory & Zoom) YYYY-MM-DD
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When

23 November 2021

14:30 - 18:00 CET

Where

Hybrid (Refectory & Zoom)

In this research seminar, Christopher Bickerton and Carlo Invernizzi Accetti present the first book-length treatment of the phenomenon of technopopulism, combining theoretical and historical approaches, and offering a systematic definition of the concept of technopopulism.

Technocratic appeals to expertise and populist invocations of ‘the people’ have become mainstays of political competition in established democracies. This development is best understood as the emergence of technopopulism—a new political logic that is being superimposed on the traditional struggle between left and right. Political movements and actors—such as Italy’s Five Star Movement and France’s La Républiqe En Marche—combine technocratic and populist appeals in a variety of ways, as do more established parties that are adapting to the particular set of incentives and constraints implicit in this new, unmediated form of politics.

In the first book-length treatment of the phenomenon of technopopulism, the authors combine theoretical and historical approaches, offering a systematic definition of the concept of technopopulism, while also exploring a number of salient contemporary examples. The book provides a detailed account of the emergence of this new political logic, as well as a discussion of its troubling consequences for existing democratic regimes. It ends by considering some possible remedies moving beyond the simplistic idea that in the right ‘dose’ populism and technocracy can counter-balance one another.

Speaker(s):

Christopher Bickerton (University of Cambridge)

Carlo Invernizzi Accetti (The City College of New York)

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