Populism in Poland – between demagoguery and demophilia
Populism in Poland – between demagoguery and demophilia

Summary/Abstract: The goal of this paper is to present the evolution of populism in Poland using the examples of two political parties: the “Samoobrona” (“Self-Defense”) political party of Andrzej Lepper (a populist party which garnered most support in the first decade of the 21st century) and the “Kukiz ‘15” movement – the dark horse of the last Polish parliamentary elections. Both of these groups superbly illustrate the demagogy characteristic of populism, linked with an affirmation of the people (nation) which in turn would not be possible without the anti-establishment stance of the political leaders and the electorate. A comparison of these two examples allows us to monitor the transformations occurring in populist groups over the last few years, especially in the age where the Internet is employed as a vital means of communication. The paper presents the alternative conceptualizations of the idea of populism, and moves on to employ the N. Baar scheme (2009) and secondary and primary data (data obtained from the “Barometr Wyborczy” voting advisory application), and press releases to draft various types of correspondence between these two cases, which makes it possible to identify new, interesting characteristics of populism.

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