Values and Empirical Phenomena:Awkwardness and Rec...
Guo Zhongjun
Guo Zhongjun，Assistant Research Professor，Institute of Politics and Public Administration Studies，SASS
E-mail:gzj@sass.org.cn
This paper in Chinese was originally published in Fudan Journal （Social Sciences Edition），2019 （1）.
Abstract: Populism is well-known ambiguous concept which is difficult to define.For the “awkwardness” of the concept of populism，a general research strategy focuses on summing up the general essence or characteristics of populism to construct a general theory of populism or form a widely accepted definition of populism.This attempt to generalize it is not satisfactory.Another strategy bypasses the general nature of populism and focuses on the social typology analysis of populism；however，the basis of its classification is debatable.Based on the systematic analysis of these two strategies，this paper proposes a third strategy for conceptualizing populism，namely，reconstructing the concept of populism from “values” and “empirical phenomena-”：Populism，as values，is the antithesis of elitism，which takes ordinary people as its heartland，highly extols ordinary people，especially grassroots civilians，and reflects the ultimate concern for them；Populism，as empirical phenomena，covers a number of phenomena or examples that have emerged in history，such as populist political parties，populist politicians，and populist strategies，featuring high diversity.This reconstruction of concept provides populism with a relatively clear and definite connotation at the “doctrine” level and coordinates the chaotic situation of populism at the“phenomena” level.
Keywords: Populism；Populist Party；Populist
In political science，the controversy over concepts is quite common，but there is still a basic consensus on the core of concepts，while “populism” is such a concept that it is even difficult to reach a consensus on its core，let alone differences in its application contexts.As Paul Taggart said，“If we seek to use populism to explain politics in any one case，we invariably end up somewhat irked by the awkward shape of the concept”[1].To re-clarify the concept of populism，or to radically reform the concept of populism，has become an unavoidable theoretical issue in current researches on populism.