People, elites and representation
Populism organises political conflict around an opposition between the people and an elite. Its meaning is therefore narrower than popular policies or forceful criticism of government. In Bergmann’s work, a central question is how political actors claim to represent the people and how that claim combines with nationalism and conspiracy narratives. The research follows both historical developments and the language through which political authority is asserted.
A case study from Iceland
Populism in Iceland: Has the Progressive Party turned populist? examines changes following the 2008 financial crisis. Rather than using populism as an all-purpose accusation, the article distinguishes the party’s nationalist tradition from changes in its communication under new leadership. It is a historically situated study published in 2015, not a classification of every subsequent position taken by the party.
From parties to rhetoric
The encyclopedia entries Populist parties and Right-wing populism provide focused entry points into political representation. The wider historical treatment is in Neo-Nationalism. The work on misinformation and conspiracy theories adds a different question: how can a claim to defend the people become a story about enemies and betrayal? These are related research problems, but evidence of one should not automatically be taken as proof of another.
A useful reading sequence
Start with the Icelandic article for a concrete case, then use the books for comparison across countries and periods. Read the three-step model when the question concerns the structure of a political claim. The publication pages retain dates and original citations so that statements about a particular period can be distinguished from later work. This guide describes academic research; it does not endorse the political narratives under examination.
Original publications
- Populist parties (2026) · Source
- Right-wing populism (2026) · Source
- Populism in Iceland: Has the Progressive Party turned populist? (2015) · Source
- Populism and the politics of misinformation (2020) · Source
Books for further reading
- Neo-Nationalism (2020) · Publisher
- Conspiracy & Populism (2018) · Publisher