Over the last years, populism has been the purview of the Right. It has turned Europe’s nationalist parties into mass movements and America into the United States of Donald Trump. For the most part, the left has responded with a rejection of populism as such, doubling down on the rationalist, deliberative principles that have long driven progressive politics.

Chantal Mouffe, one of the world’s leading social theorists, urges a different tack. She calls for the development of a left populism to counter its conservative variant. In a conversation with Austrian journalist Robert Misik, she will expound her position, which is developed in her book For a Left Populism that was published by Verso.

Cover picture: © Yeo Khee / unsplash.com

Vienna Humanities Festival

The Vienna Humanities Festival, organised by the IWM, Wien Museum and Time to Talk, is a series of around 40 Events (in German and English) which took place from 27 till 30 September 2018 for the third time at the Wien Museum, TU Wien, Evangelische Volksschule and Stadtkino.

The topic of 2018 “Power and Powerlessness” focused on the vulnerability of democracies in Europe in light of historical events embedding them in the context of contemporary socio-political developments.