Populism and Human Rights in a Turbulent Era

How can we interpret and respond to the rise of populist regimes that infringe on human rights? This incisive book analyses illiberal, repressive, and patriarchal logics of rule, identifying critical catalysts in the meteoric growth of populist agendas. Contributors scrutinise the records of authoritarian and nationalist leaders in Brazil, Hungary, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Turkey and the United States.

This topical book treats populism as a multi-faceted, performative phenomenon that claims to improve social rights while suppressing civil liberties and substitutes the promise of cultural citizenship for the loss of self-determination in a turbulent era of globalization. The chapters bring attention to understudied dimensions of populism including gender dynamics, bureaucratic politics, and the co-construction of foreign policy. Going beyond normative appeals to human rights, this innovative book urges advocates to contest populism at the national, social, and ideological levels in novel ways.

Interweaving historical, political, comparative, statistical and discursive analysis, this interdisciplinary book will be vital to students and scholars of human rights, comparative politics, democracy, sociology and international studies. It will also prove invaluable to policymakers looking to address future populist regimes.