Why is it so difficult to define populism? Challenges and advances in the empirical investigation of this concept

Abstract

Populism is a concept that has gained much relevance in the daily discussion and in academic research in recent years. The present paper is a meta-theorical analysis of recent literature in comparative politics on populism. It is found that defining populism generates ample debate in the literature. This debate may have increased during the last five years, due to recent events around the world, e.g.: the presidency of Donald Trump in the United States. It is argued that the main difficulty of defining, and from there, operationalizing and measuring this concept is found in its ideational natures, which is subjective and intersubjective. The study of ideas is very common from the perspective of those who identify themselves with hermeneutics. Instead, empiricist studies have found it difficult to adapt that nature to their analysis schemes. However, recent research on populism in comparative politics seems to be moving towards the study of its complex and ideational nature.