Events

DEMOS at the 5th IPPA Conference in Barcelona

Researchers will explore the links between populism and policy making

   July 05, 2021 2:00 PM - July 08, 2021 12:00 PM

Populism has risen in politics over the past years, but studies on populist governance and policy making are in short supply. DEMOS researchers have explored the links between populism and policy and will present scientific findings at the 5th International Conference on Public Policy in Barcelona.

Held by the International Public Policy Association (IPPA), the conference will take place between July 5–9 in a hybrid format (online and in-person). The event is organised into 20 panels, in which scholars will present and discuss research on public policy.

Organised by DEMOS, the panel on populism and policy making brings over 20 researchers across Europe to discuss the topic between July 5–8. Researchers from POPREBEL, DEMOS’s sister project studying the recent rise of populism in Central and Eastern Europe, will also present work. (Read more below.)

July 5, Monday, 2 – 4 PM (CEST)

DEMOS researcher Attila Bartha (Centre for Social Sciences, Budapest, CSS), project leader Zsolt Boda (CSS), and project co-investigators in Lithuania Egle Butkeviciene (Kaunas University of Technology) and in Poland Artur Lipinski (Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan) will open the populism and policy making panel by presenting a theoretical model of populist policy making and discussing its application in Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia. Findings suggest that populism predominates in family policy over both criminal justice policy and economic policy.

In the same panel, DEMOS member Vaidas Morkevicius (Kaunas University of Technology) and co-authors will explore how populist actors framed policy debates in the Lithuanian Parliament between 1990-2020, with a focus on macroeconomic, civil rights, and law and crime policies.

July 6, Tuesday, 10 AM – 12 PM (CEST)

DEMOS members from the Greek team Dimitris Katsikas and Emmanouil Tsatsanis (Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy, ELIAMEP), will use the case of Greek bailout agreement from 2015 to examine whether or how the populist government reconciled its populist character with the external policy commitments imposed by the EU. The research compares practices and developments in three policy sectors in Greece under populist governance between 2015-2018: economic policy, criminal justice policy, and family policy.

Next in line is a presentation by DEMOS member Viktor Szép (CSS), who will cover how populist views shaped the voting behaviour of other MEPs in the European Parliament (EP) during the Eurozone crisis (2009-2014). His research focuses on how populist actors articulated policy positions in the debates over reforms in the EU economic governance. Preliminary findings suggest MEPs affiliated with populist parties usually advocated for populist policy proposals.

At the end of the session, DEMOS Glasgow-based researcher Lena Karamanidou (Glasgow Caledonian University) will explore the influence of populist parties over the EP between 2014-2019, a period that coincided with increased migratory movements known as Europe's migrant crisis. After analysing three dimensions of populist policy making, she found that populist actors had a marginal impact on the policy process. Relevant committees or the plenary adopted few of those amendments.

SISTER PROJECT 'POPREBEL'

July 7, Wednesday, 10 AM – 12 PM (CEST)

POPREBEL researcher Istvan Benczes (Corvinus University of Budapest) and a co-author will investigate the long-term costs and consequences of economic and public policies deployed by populist governments in Poland and Hungary. These include a significant decay in their institutional landscape, the quality of regulation, and the security of ownership. The research also provides general lessons on the supply side of populism.

In the same panel, POPREBEL researcher István Kollai (Corvinus University of Budapest) will break down the interactions between the domestic personal political embeddedness of company leaders—in other words, the depth of their politicisation—and the corporate competitiveness in Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. His analysis reveals patterns of patronage and neo-feudalistic relations in Hungary and of state capture in Slovakia, as well as oligarchic capitalism prevailing in the Czech Republic.

5th International Conference on Public Policy in Barcelona, Spain

Date: July 5–9, 2021.
Populism and Policy Making: Read the full panel programme here.
Programme: Read the conference agenda here.
Participation: Organisers accept registration until June 28. More information here.


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