Understanding varieties of populism in times of crises

Abstract

This introduction presents the conceptual and analytical framework which constitutes the background for the special issue entitled ‘Varieties of Populism in Europe in Times of Crises’. More specifically, this contribution investigates how different populist parties in the European Union have been affected by the recent economic crisis and the more long-lasting political and cultural crises. Analytically, the article disentangles the role of the Great Recession vis-à-vis other factors (such as political and party system factors, but also structural social changes or cultural opportunities) in the growing strength of populist parties in various European countries. It argues that although the economic crisis has without any doubt provided a specific ‘window of opportunity’ for the emergence of new political actors, which have capitalised on citizens’ discontent, long-lasting political factors – such as the increasing distrust toward political institutions and parties – and the more recent cultural crisis connected with migration issues have offered further fertile ground for the consolidation of populist parties in several European countries. Furthermore, as confirmed by the articles presented in the special issue, the various crises have offered differential opportunities for different types of populism – both inclusionary and exclusionary.     

Place and Afghan Refugees: A Contribution to Turton

This article contributes to the discussion on place/space/identityrecently re-opened by David Turton, who introduces the notionof ‘place-making project’ to describe the relationbetween a group of Ethiopian agro-pastoralists and place. Thisarticle aims to expand Turton's framework to situations otherthan the one he depicts, as well as to develop some of the conceptspresented therein. With reference to Afghans in Pakistan, thefollowing arguments are made. First, a vast array of overlappingplace-making projects simultaneously encompass territory andindividuals, attributing a different significance to them onthe basis of peculiar logics. Second, the interaction betweensuch projects has material effects on spatial and institutionalpractices of migration and assistance. Third, these materialeffects have different significance for refugees, since eachof them is differently encompassed by such projects. The articleconcludes by highlighting how such a framework can be used toassess power relations and challenge de-politicized narrativesof refugee protection and assistance.     

Signaling in academic ventures: the role of technology transfer offices and university funds

University spinoffs, an important subset of high-tech start-up companies, operate in a context characterized by marked information asymmetries that limit their chances of obtaining financing. Given the uncertainty and imperfect information that characterize these investment opportunities, signals about their potential value deserve further attention. We investigate the relationship between the main stakeholders involved in the process of creating a university spinoff—that is, the academic founders, the university technology-transfer office, and private investors—focusing on the role of public grants as effective signals that attract private venture capital (VC) funding. Using the database of all spinoff companies established to exploit inventions assigned to the University of Michigan from 1999 to 2010, we determine how the funds provided through the university technology-transfer office influence VC follow-on funding and consequent spinoff growth, controlling for the spinoff’s technology, the founders’ human capital, and the network’s resources. The empirical results support a signaling effect of the commercialization funds provided by the university and suggest an indirect impact on the growth of the spinoff’s sales through the mediating effect of VC financing.     

Europeanization as a Democratization Tool? The Case of Morocco

This paper applies the Europeanization ‘toolkit’ to EU democratization policies in Morocco within the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) framework. To this aim, the bottom-up and top-down dimensions of EU?Morocco relations are analysed diachronically both before and after the Arab Spring. The analysis shows that the Moroccan ruling elite has used the anchor to the EU as a survival strategy and that the EU has merely responded to Moroccan political liberalization rather than having influenced it. Therefore, the paper debates the extent to which the very notion of Europeanization might be used with respect to democratization policies in Morocco, and it shows an overturning of the sender?receiver relationship proving that Europeanization has been used instrumentally rather than having any autonomous supportive effect on democratization.     

Italy and the new international economic order

In order to make it more effective as an actor on the international scene, the European Union is being urged to reverse its foreign policy priorities. EU enlargement policy has fallen out of grace and many want to see Europe acquire a “normal” foreign policy with a global rather than merely regional reach, significant military means and centralised governance. Management of various conflicts in Africa and Asia is also in vogue. Such a policy shift will define the nature of Europe's actorness. It is argued that, with all its defects, the EU performs quite well as a civilian regional power and efforts to transform it into a traditional military power with a global reach could make things worse rather than better.     

The subjectivist interpretation of probability and the problem of individualisation in forensic science

This paper presents and discusses further aspects of the subjectivist interpretation of probability (also known as the ‘personalist’ view of probabilities) as initiated in earlier forensic and legal literature. It shows that operational devices to elicit subjective probabilities – in particular the so-called scoring rules – provide additional arguments in support of the standpoint according to which categorical claims of forensic individualisation do not follow from a formal analysis under that view of probability theory.