Charisma, Populism, or Charismatic Populism?

“Charisma” and “populism” can be said to be features that erupt from of a common moral-cultural substrate—just described from different vantage points. For its part, charisma theory seeks to understand the conditions of possibility for the emergence of extraordinary leaders who can have a transformative impact on the societies that they inhabit. Populism, by contrast, focusses on “the people” for whom such leaders often come to be regarded as an emblematic symbol and vehicle for change. The connection between these two elements—leader and people—is thus intimate. Despite this complementarity, “charisma” and “populism” remain somewhat distinct in both contemporary theory and in the evidence bases that we accumulate. The aim of this session is to provoke deeper conversation between charisma theory and populism studies, welcoming attempts at synthesis and/or case studies that display (or disconfirm) the usefulness of “charismatic populism” as an analytic.