Characterization of the use of the concept of populism: The politics of salvation

Abstract

In this article, a multilevel conceptual mechanism is proposed to characterize the way in which the concept of populism is used. It is pointed out that this is a complex concept that must be defined through different analytical levels and that the main distinguishing feature of this category in comparison to other phenomena lies in the use of the idealized cognitive model of the figure of salvation, where political reality is narrated in terms of an apocalyptic scenario that uses the commonplaces of democracy. In this sense, the core of the narrative that makes meaningful the category of populism is a metaphor that is based on a religious correlate. This mechanism aims to overcome a part of the theoretical and methodological difficulties of the conceptualization of populism and to explain some components involved in the categorization of political phenomena. To make this, there is made a contextualization of the discussion on the concept, are studied some insufficiencies of the conceptualizations and is proposed a theoretical framework that explains these insufficiencies.