Populizmas - grėsmė atstovaujamajai demokratijai ar jos (pa)taisymo priemonė? ; Is populism a threat for the existence of representative democracy or its corrective mechanism?

Abstract

While the success of populist political parties has been increasing in Western Europe, politicians are becoming more concerned with the populist threat for representative democracy. However, scholars of populism have different perspectives on what influence populism might have on representative democracy. One group of researchers perceive populism as fundamentally hostile to the principles of the representative democracy. Other scientists understand populism as corrective for democracy or at least a part of it. The article attempts to answer the question why some populism theorists treat populism as incompatible with representative democracy, and others interpret it as a corrective for democracy. To answer the question, it has been analysed how two opposing groups of populism scholars define populism, representative democracy and how they conceptualise the relationship between them.