Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Peter Učen: Approaching National Populism
PETER UCEN: AppROAchiNq NationaI PopulisM The primary interest of the project for which this text has been produced rests with the consolidation of a political nation in Slovakia, a country with a sizeable ethnic minority. The project and its carriers see the world from the liberal-democratic perspective. Thus they conceive populism as an obstacle disruptive (rather than facilitating) potential of which is to be tackled in an effort to bring up the conception of a political nation for a free, yet heterogeneous society. They rightly assume that populism is at odds with the liberal democratic values and perceptions in various regards. When it comes to the concept of national populism, there is, however, a great deal of uncertainty as to the meaning of populism and its relationship to nationalism. The ambition of this introductory text is largely methodological: it strives to offer a number of useful concepts possibly contributing to the success of the venture. Also, it tries to provide some clues regarding the relationship among the concepts hopefully shedding some additional light and dissipating existing confusion. The text will address the term of ‘national populism’ trying to dissect and examine it conceptually. Warning against its improper use, it will advocate the utility of the term in analysing Slovak post-communist politics. NatíonaI PopulisM at Larqe The expression and concept of ‘national populism’ originates in the scholarship and journalism on the so-called radical or extreme right in Western Europe which in the post-war decades started to challenge the mainstream consensus in some Western European polities. Often considered a sort of anti-democratic extremism, even an offshoot of fascism, the extreme/radical right1 came to be studied per se around 13
