Petar-Emil Mitev

Populism as a phenomenon of modern society is fueled by a number of factors – the „rebellion of the masses“, the communication revolution, the globalization and the simultaneous polarization of the world. All of this in turn creates huge and expanding space for ideological substitutes.The author defines populism as a characteristic of political behavior that short- ens the gap between „politicians” and „the people” by eliminating the elite and uncritically accepting mass demands, attitudes and stereotypes. In populism, priority is given to short-term effects as a basis for policy decisions, as well as simplified, one-sided „views” of long-term problems. Populism is a double rejection of the elite – as a privileged social group and as a carrier of specific knowledge.Two types of populism are defined. The first one is tactical, where in a political platform or in a specific political action mass expectations are imposed in order to provide a rating effect. The second one is strategic (positive and negative), where rating decisions are not the „garnish", but the principle, the structure defining factor.The author seeks to answer the questions whether populism is only political stylistics or is it a political ideology and what its historical perspective is.