Political Theorist Seth Jaffe ’00 Proposes New Framework for Understanding Populism

This is important work, argues Jaffe, who believes that providing a new, fuller definition of populism will help us better assess the challenges it poses to liberal democracy.

"Populism in liberal democracy is hard to define, largely because populists evince different understandings of the purposes of government," said Jaffe, who came to give a talk on campus earlier this semester. "All populists, however," he continued, "argue that legitimate authority derives from the people, and that government is failing its purpose vis-à-vis the people, but they have different visions of the people."

Because liberal democracy draws on many sources for its principles, combining liberal, democratic, and nationalist elements in distinctive ways, he explained, this leaves "rhetorical space" for populists to argue that these principles are being violated. Hence the need "for a new framework for understanding populism that takes seriously these entangled principles," said Jaffe, who taught at Bowdoin from 2010 to 2012 and again in 2015.

These conversations are especially important in today's political climate, he added, when social media algorithms can amplify populist claims that can stray into the realm of disinformation.

"One of the things I argue about the American case is that we can't simply abandon the national vision to one of the two major parties. There needs to be a positive vision. Not for nothing, I think, was the Democratic National Convention this year full of veterans," said Jaffe. "Why? Because Democrats got tired by being beaten to death over the fact that they were deficiently patriotic compared to Republican candidates, and so now you have a whole collection of Democratic candidates against whom you cannot make an antipatriotism argument, because they served their country in Afghanistan, Iraq, or other theaters."

As we explore new definitions of populism, said Jaffe, it's also important to have a clearer vision of what a healthy liberal democracy would actually look like and to be able to articulate that vision. "Then, when populists claim that the existing system is broken, we can ask them what the system would look like if it was working well. Conversely," he continued, "if someone claims populism itself constitutes the problem, we can ask that person what a healthy liberal democracy should look like."

Jaffe is exploring this thesis with a Spanish collaborator, Guillermo Graíño Ferrer, a professor of political theory at Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid, Spain. They are currently working on an article to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, exploring populism in a global context. "We're also applying for funding to generate some academic conversations about these different, entangled visions of the common good," explained Jaffe.

Jaffe's visit to campus last month was hosted by Bowdoin's Department of Government and Legal Studies.