When populist leaders govern: conceptualising populism in policy making

Abstract

The rise of populist governance throughout the world offers a novel opportunity to study the way in which populist leadersand parties rule. This article conceptualises populist policy making by theoretically addressing the substantive and discur-sive components of populist policies and the decision-making processes of populist governments. It first reconstructs theimplicit ideal type of policy making in liberal democracies based on the mainstream governance and policy making schol-arship. Then, taking stock of the recent populism literature, the article elaborates an ideal type of populist policy makingalong the dimensions of content, procedures and discourses. As an empirical illustration we apply a qualitative congruenceanalysis to assess the conformity of a genuine case of populist governance, social policy in post-2010 Hungary with the populist policy making ideal type. Concerning the policy content, the article argues that policy heterodoxy, strong willingnessto adopt paradigmatic reforms and an excessive responsiveness to majoritarian preferences are distinguishing features ofany type of populist policies. Regarding the procedural features populist leaders tend to downplay the role of technocraticexpertise, sideline veto-players and implement fast and unpredictable policy changes. Discursively, populist leaders tendto extensively use crisis frames and discursive governance instruments in a Manichean language and a saliently emotionalmanner that reinforces polarisation in policy positions. Finally, the article suggests that policy making patterns in Hungariansocial policy between 2010 and 2018 have been largely congruent with the ideal type of populist policy making.