Product details
- ISBN 9781041052418
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 08 Jul 2026
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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In Populism, Demagoguery, and Tyranny, Tomás Pacheco-Bethencourt examines the political challenges posed by populism to constitutional democracy, with a twofold aim of clarifying its impact and addressing it effectively. He combines conceptual history, history of political thought, political history, and political philosophy to help analyze the political impact of populism on constitutional democracies.
Pacheco-Bethencourt begins his analysis by demonstrating that lessons can be learned by bringing ancient Greece’s institutional framework to the discussion. It was during this time that republican procedures and practices of constitutionalism were born, explored, and refined by new oversight strategies. To underpin the argument, Pacheco-Bethencourt dives into examples of populist movements in Argentina, Venezuela, Hungary, Poland, France, and Spain to establish how the theory and real politics meet. It is here that the connection between populist rhetoric and political opportunism is exemplified. Politicians use populism as a tool to strategically reach power or push their political agenda, bridging strategy and politics. Opportunism has an ethical dimension that has to do with self-serving actions and willingness to deceive, akin to what could be compared to the negative connotations of classical demagoguery, also explored herein.
This book will be of great interest to researchers studying populism and its future in modern politics, in addition to undergraduate and postgraduate students of populist rhetoric.
Tomás Pacheco-Bethencourt has a doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Málaga (2024), within the Doctoral Program in Advanced Studies in the Humanities, with an emphasis on political philosophy. He was supported by an FPU scholarship contract (2020–2024) from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and defended his dissertation on December 18, 2024, earning the highest distinction (A or sobresaliente cum laude) and the International Doctorate mention. During this period, he taught courses on ethics, human rights, historiography, and argumentation at the University of Málaga.
He has been a member of the consolidated research group Moral and Political Philosophy (HUM 350) (Filosofía Moral y Política) of the Andalusian Research Plan since 2019 and was a member of the four-year research project Civic Constellation III: Democracy, Constitutionalism, and Anti-Liberalism, funded by the Spain’s Research, Development and Innovation Plan (PGC2018-093573-B-I00) from 2020 to 2022. He also participated in the COST Action 16211 Reappraising Intellectual Debates on Civic Rights and Democracy in Europe (RECAST), funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Program.
