Populist Mobilization. Paris Aslanidis. (Oxford University Press, 2024)

Aslanidis's publication explores the concept of populism from a divergent perspective: a bottomup approach that focuses on populist grassroots movements instead of political parties, leaders, or organisations.The book acknowledges that a significant gap exists between the level of attention given to the concept by social movements scholars (very limited) and political scientists (extensive).According to Aslanidis, this disparity stems from negative connotations associated with populism dating back to the 1950s, which portray it as irrational, dangerous, anti-democratic, and anti-liberal and often linked to xenophobia, racism, nativism, and anti-Semitism.The author wishes to decouple this obstructive sentiment by arguing that moral political arguments have helped shape the current democratic climate and that populist supporters should not be automatically labelled as anti-democratic or as holding illegitimate political claims.To analyse the structure of populist mobilisation, he examines the Icelandic Pots and Pans Revolution and the Greek Indignados.Following an introductory chapter that sets the goals of the book, the second chapter explores the reasons for the toxicity of the concept in the field of sociology.It tracks the evolution of populism, from the establishment of the American People's party in the 1890s, which originated in the south and midwest, and was founded as part of an agrarian movement fuelled by widespread discontent.Farmers faced increased economic challenges, and their resentment grew against the perceived privileged eastern elites.The temporary and modest success of the party was praised by American historians and sociologists as pioneering progressive and inclusive politics, which contributed to aspects of President Roosevelt's New Deal.However, following the events of the Second World War and the start of the Cold War, that positive perspective changed.Reasons for this dramatic switch include the distrust of mass mobilisation after the horrors of Nazism and Fascism, the tendency to analyse political behaviour in psychoanalytical terms, the need to present the USA as a class-and conflict-free society, and the growing fear of McCarthyism.Exemplified by American historian Richard Hofstadter, populism was portrayed as irrational, paranoid, conspiracist, and bigoted.The third chapter lays the foundations of the theoretical model for the study of populist social movements.Following a review of different approaches and their potential weaknesses, Aslanidis specifies his viewpoint, which is based on a discursive and constructivist analysis, and focuses specifically on the theory of collective action framing.Its central premise is that external events do not automatically generate a shared interpretation among individuals.Rather, strategic political and community actors actively construct meaning by interpreting events, engaging with the