Populism with a Ph.D: education levels and populist leaders

Abstract

Whether we define populism as an ideology an aesthetic style or a political strategy populism is directed against a perceived elite and academic expertise. Yet we have seen several cases of academics who have adopted a populist style in their political careers: Pim Fortuyn (The Netherlands) Pablo Iglesias (Spain) Bernd Lucke (Germany) Christoph Mörgeli (Switzerland) and Yanis Varoufakis (Greece). This article examines how these academic populists address this apparent contradiction by construing ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’ thus that it furthers their own political persona. © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.