Abstract

COSTA, Frederico Alves  and  PRADO, Marco Aurélio Máximo. Contributions to a Psychopolitical Analysis of Populism. Psicol. cienc. prof. [online]. 2025, vol.45, e276668.  Epub Feb 24, 2025. ISSN 1414-9893.  https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-3703003276668.

This study aims to discuss three issues proposed in radical and plural democratic theory that enable us to question ways of understanding the political dynamics of contemporary Western societies: the critique of Marxism, the critique of deliberative democracy, and the critique of the elitist rejection of the notion of populism. Via these debates and focusing on the understanding of the political subject, we will address the contributions of this theory to the discussion of the phenomenon of populism in political psychology. We believe that the problem of democracy and the construction of the people configures an historical theme in political thought that has been centrally resumed, especially due to the emergence of right-wing populisms in the 21st century. Radical and plural democratic theory contributes to the understanding of populism in psychopolitical terms and thus to the discussion of this phenomenon in political psychology by conceiving it formally and distancing itself from the dichotomy between subjectivity and objectivity, passion and rationality, and subject and structure.

Keywords : Plural and Radical Democratic Theory; Populism; Democracy; Political Psychology.

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