Elevating the Concept of Populist in a Specific Co...
On the basis of their own definitions of populism，some scholars have made the definitions a universally applicable theory or paradigm that is intended to cover all examples of populism as much as possible by increasing or decreasing relevant variables or parameters.
In the late 1970s，Ernesto Laclau tried to construct a “populist theory”.Laclau，famous for his research on Latin American populism，proposed that although the concept of populism he used was mainly based on experiences in Latin American，the validity of this concept was not limited to Latin America，but could also be applied to other historical conditions or geographical environments.[17] Laclau criticized attempts to define populism as a political movement or ideology and believed that the essential factor of “populism” lies in the “specific non-class confrontation” it embodies instead of the movement itself or the specific ideology.In discourse，it is not limited to a specific class，but tries to include other classes，and the political demands of different classes are integrated in the name of“people”.The objective existence of “non-class confrontation” is the confrontation between “people” and “authority”.It is this confrontation that has resulted in the populist ideological discourse.Therefore，the common feature of populism is to mobilize the “people” to fight against the “authority” and the established order.However，Laclau also pointed out that this characteristic of populism takes on different forms in different contexts.[18] Müller criticized Laclau ’s definition，saying that he defined populism as the use of contradictions and conflicts to construct popular identities，but almost all politics are the same，and therefore，this definition has deprived populism of the value of theoretical analysis.[19]