Le préjugé politique et le peuple. Note sur les populismes latino-américains

Political Prejudice and the People: Some Notes on Latin-American PopulismsAs a recurrent phenomenon in Latin America, populism has been analyzed in various ways. This paper argues that, while displaying a certain diversity, most of the interpretations regarding the nature of populist experiments draw on similar representations of the People. These representations are furthermore grounded on a biased political viewpoint which tends to apprehend populism as a community of heteronomous masses molded by a charismatic and authoritarian leader, who invokes the People in his attempt to polarize political life. Such prejudices result in populism being regarded as a threat both to pluralism and to the intermediary institutions of liberal democracy. The article thus intends to show that such interpretations present a number of shortcomings, which can only be superseded by way of the adoption of a political perspective which aims to apprehend both the processes through which popular identities are produced and the populist representations of the community from below.