Searching for the Philosopher’s Stone: Counterstrategies Against Populism

Abstract: 

The issue of counterstrategies to populism is tricky, and the philosopher´s stone has not been found yet. A systematic approach towards a differentiation between actor-related and supporter-related counterstrategies can reveal lessons learnt in a global context. To that end, we define populism as a strategy along three dimensions: technique-related, content-related and media-related. By following these dimensions, we display counterstrategies claimed and used by established parties to combat left- and right-wing populism. Considering the evaluation of the different approaches, we propose a more fundamental approach to fight populism in the twenty-first century.