“The People” in Nationalism, Populism, and Popular Culture

From political modernity to post-pandemic times, notion of “the people” and “sovereignty” have traditionally dominated political discourse. They appear in right-wing and nationalist discourses, leftist and socialist repertories as well as representations of popular culture. As such, their omnipresence has led many experts to claim that either everything is populist or the category of populism is no useful at all, and that we should perhaps use the term popular not populist. This entry objects these claims, arguing that it is a different logic that interpellates “the people” of nationalism, populism, and popular culture.