Pierre-André Taguieff

Bio: Pierre-André Taguieff is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Racism & Identity (philosophy). The author has an hindex of 18, co-authored 72 publications receiving 1237 citations.

Political Science Confronts Populism: From a Conceptual Mirage to a Real Problem

Abstract: The word “populism” has had an ironic misfortune: it has become popular. Having escaped the clutches of scholarly discourse, populism now thrives in the polemical space occupied by politicians, journalists and media intellectuals in polemical expressions such as “populistic drift,” “populist endeavors,” “populist peril,” etc. In this context, the term has been adopted as a pejorative category with menacing connotations as is, without first subjecting it to critical scrutiny. If this concept is to be saved, it has to be classified and elaborated. The following will seek to determine how and under what conditions the term “populism” can be fruitfully used.

The New Cultural Racism in France

Abstract: After Mitterrand's stunning victory on May 10, 1981, an anti-Left front was mobilized around such themes as security, “freedom of choice” in education, immigration, etc., — all inspired by a rhetoric of radical opposition predicated on a strong ideological distinction between Right and Left, and premised on a populist reinterpretation of ultra-liberal motifs (against the welfare state and in favor of the market society of property-holders and entrepreneurs) and authoritarian-nationalist themes. The end result was the Right's victory in the legislative elections on March 16, 1986. After Mitterrand's reelection in May 8 and the legislative elections in June 1988, political conflicts and ideological debates have diminished.

The Force of Prejudice: On Racism and its Doubles

Abstract: Introduction. Doubts about antiracism. Critique of antiracist reason. Heterophobia, heterophilia : the definitional antinomy "racism" : ordinary uses and scholarly uses, from the word to the notion. Births, functionings, and avatars of the word racism. An ideal type : "racism" as an ideological construction -- Genealogy of the dogmatic critique of prejudices. The theories of prejudice and the meanings of racism. Antiracism and antiprejudice ideology -- Racisms and antiracisms : paradoxes, analyses, models, theory. On racism : models, ideal types, variations, paradoxes. The specter of mtissage: the mixophobic hypothesis. On antiracism : ideal type, ideological corruption, perverse effects. Elements of a theory of ideological debate -- Beyond racism. Pessimism : philanthropy in spite of humanity. Ethics : the infinite of the law above the law? Republican metapolitics : Universalism or barbarism? Universalism without barbarism?.

Le populisme et la science politique du mirage conceptuel aux vrais problèmes

Abstract: Mot-valise, concept inexperimente, surgeon bâtard d'un « peuple » indecis, le populisme n'est reductible ni a un regime politique particulier ni a des contenus ideologiques fixes. Des populistes russes du siecle dernier aux « telepopulistes » qui nous hantent aujourd'hui, la science politique a tente de cerner ses manifestations ravageuses. Pierre-Andre Taguieff dresse la typologie de ce systeme defensif pour communautes fictives.

The Populist Zeitgeist

Abstract: Since the 1980s the rise of so-called ‘populist parties’ has given rise to thousands of books, articles, columns and editorials. This article aims to make a threefold contribution to the current debate on populism in liberal democracies. First, a clear and new definition of populism is presented. Second, the normal-pathology thesis is rejected; instead it is argued that today populist discourse has become mainstream in the politics of western democracies. Indeed, one can even speak of a populist Zeitgeist. Third, it is argued that the explanations of and reactions to the current populist Zeitgeist are seriously flawed and might actually strengthen rather than weaken it.

Populist radical right parties in Europe

Abstract: As Europe enters a significant phase of re-integration of East and West, it faces an increasing problem with the rise of far-right political parties. Cas Mudde offers the first comprehensive and truly pan-European study of populist radical right parties in Europe. He focuses on the parties themselves, discussing them both as dependent and independent variables. Based upon a wealth of primary and secondary literature, this book offers critical and original insights into three major aspects of European populist radical right parties: concepts and classifications; themes and issues; and explanations for electoral failures and successes. It concludes with a discussion of the impact of radical right parties on European democracies, and vice versa, and offers suggestions for future research.

Racism and the press

Abstract: Preface 1. The Study of Racism and the Press 2. Theoretical Framework 3. Headlines 4. Subjects and Topics 5. News Schemata, Argumentation and Editorials 6. Quotations and Sources 7. Meanings and Ideologies 8. Style and Rhetoric 9. The Reproduction of News about Ethnic Affairs 10. General Conclusions. Appendix: Guidelines on Race Reporting

Discourse and the Denial of Racism

Abstract: Within the broader framework of a research programme on the reproduction of racism in discourse and communication, the present article examines the prominent role of the denial of racism, especiall...

The return of assimilation? Changing perspectives on immigration and its sequels in France, Germany, and the United States

Abstract: “The point about the melting pot,” wrote Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the preface to their influential Beyond the Melting Pot, “is that it did not happen.” This “failure to melt” thesis was iconoclastic when the book was published in 1963. But it had become widely accepted already by the end of the decade — well before the post-1965 revival of mass immigration began to transform the American urban landscape. By the 1980s, when the effects of the “new ‘new immigration’” had become unmistakable, earlier conceptions of assimilation seemed to many to have lost all relevance. When Glazer published We Are All Multiculturalists Now in 1997, he was writing as eminence grise, not as iconoclastic intellectual.1 Pluralistic understandings of persisting diversity, once a challenge to the conventional wisdom, had become the conventional wisdom, not only in the US and other classic countries of immigration such as Canada and Australia, but also in much of northern and western Europe.