1st edition: March 2021

“The concepts,” wrote the Nobel laureate physicist George Thomson, “are ideas that are named; they define the questions we ask and the answers we receive.” Scholars create words (conceptualize) to tell us what they “see” in reality, to direct our attention to what they deem interesting and critical. Whether they realize it or not, this reflects their values, their normative and ideological beliefs. We must know and assess these values; however, what we judge them on are the research results of their work: whether and to what extent the way they pose and address questions promotes and expands our cognitive horizons, or – conversely – shrinks them.

With the principles of classical methodology as a primary weapon, this book attempts to tackle the prolonged cognitive dystocia observed in three key areas of contemporary political science: in the current industry of “populism studies,” in the ways problems of democratic functioning are approached, and in the interpretations favored to explain the failure of new left parties to resist the hegemony of the TINA doctrine.

It is argued that while the dominant approaches function as first-order conveyors and diffusers of the two fundamental value incentives that underpin them (either the neoconservative defense of post-democracy or the projection of new reformism as the only possible response to the increasingly intense systemic crisis), they nonetheless result in a social science with disappointing research outcomes.

The first part of the book highlights and critiques the multiple research deadlocks of the dominant conceptualizations of “populism,” and advocates the view that the term is useful for naming the significance of “false appeals to the people.” The second part utilizes the experience of SYRIZA, in order to highlight the importance of political contents in the way we understand the crisis of parties. In this context, operationally-oriented proposals are also presented to address the issue of bureaucratization, as well as reflections regarding the challenge of democratic expansion and deepening.