Publié le 7 septembre 2023
–
Mis à jour le 22 mars 2024
Date(s)
le 12 octobre 2023
Lieu(x)
14H00- 15h30 Salle Picasso
GREDEG - Bâtiment 2 - Campus Azur du CNRS - 250 rue Albert Einstein - SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS
GREDEG - Bâtiment 2 - Campus Azur du CNRS - 250 rue Albert Einstein - SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS
Laboratoire GREDEG
Title:
Toward an economic theory of populism: Uncertainty, Information, and Public Interest in Downs’s Political Economy
Co-author: Alexandre Chirat
Abstract:
In this paper, we claim that Downs’s theory of democracy provides a framework to build an economic and positive theory of populism. Our purpose in this paper is
threefold. First, we highlight systematically overlooked aspects of Downs’s work. In particular, we demonstrate that Downs is a thinker of political polarization and that
his focus on uncertainty is relevant to build an economic theory of populism. Second, we take the issue of populism as an opportunity to test the explanatory power of
Downs’s political economy. Third, our reconstruction of Downs’s political economy enables a comparative analysis with the theoretical political science literature on
populism to achieve a wide reflexive equilibrium on the understanding of both the nature and the causes of populism. In accordance with such a method, we conclude that populism is, in essence, a political force in a democracy, always present in a latent state, and rationally promoted by political platforms when the minimum consensus required for democratic stability is in crisis. That is why populism is likely to regenerate as much as to sound the death knell of a democratic political system.
More about Cyril Hédoin
Date(s)
Le
12 octobre 2023 14:00
- 15:30
