Tuesday April 28 2009 / Arts & Philosophy
Populism as political quicksand
Fortuyn, Wilders and Verdonk have put populism on the political and social map in the Netherlands. You could say that modern politics cannot do without it any more. But what is populism? It comes from the Romans: ‘vox populi, vox dei' or ‘the voice of the people is the voice of god'. This proposition lives on in the weekly polls that seem to have a great influence on the policy of managers and politicians. These polls function more and more as a public thermometer. Real influence of the ‘vox populi' is out of the question in our parliamentary system. The so-called direct influence of citizens on policy is actually in conflict with our democracy. How are we to deal with this phenomenon? What will this mean for the content of the idea of citizenship? How can we deal with the declining faith of the voter?
These and other questions will be discussed with Anton Zijderveld (Professor of Cultural Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, author of the essay Populism as political quicksand [Populisme als politiek drijfzand]), Dick Pels (writer and researcher) and Rik Peeters (researcher, The Netherlands School of Public Administration). Moderator: Steve Austen (Permanent Fellow, Felix Meritis)
In cooperation with
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