Populism and Democratic Conflict: An Aristotelian View

Abstract Populism has lately become a matter of concern in both popular and academic circles. Yet contemporary writers have had difficulty parsing populism's relationship to democracy, partly because they are universally committed the latter. It is worth turning thinker like Aristotle, who—despite not explicitly addressing populism itself—is able reflect clearly on various democratic phenomena that we tend consider populist, he does share our normative or analytical assumptions about democracy. Aristotle's discussions books 3 4 Politics allow us see what call function broader problem class conflict democracies. In light this analysis, can populist movements as an external challenge regime, but rather characteristic expression recurring dispute over contours prerogatives people.