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Searching for the Philosopher’s Stone: Counterstrategies Against Populism

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The Palgrave Handbook of 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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Politics, University of Passau, Passau, Germany

    Mario Schäfer

  2. Hanse Advice Tallin, Tallin, Estonia

    Florian Hartleb

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  1. Mario Schäfer
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Correspondence to Mario Schäfer .

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  1. Political Science, University of Passau, Passau, Bayern, Germany

    Michael Oswald

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Schäfer, M., Hartleb, F. (2022). Searching for the Philosopher’s Stone: Counterstrategies Against Populism. In: Oswald, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Populism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80803-7_40

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