Populism in world politics: a comparative cross-regional perspective

Populism has become more salient in multiple regions in the world, in developed as well as developing countries. Today it is largely a reaction to social dislocations tied to processes of neoliberal globalisation. As a concept, populism has had a long and contentious history. We suggest that populism has been on the rise alongside new imaginings of what constitutes the ‘people’ and ‘elites’, as the meanings attached to these labels are continually reshaped in conjunction with new social conflicts. These conflicts are intensifying across the globe together with new kinds of social marginalisation, precarious existence and disenchantment with the broken promises of liberal modernity. The article introduces a special issue on Populism in World Politics that seeks to understand general processes involved in the emergence of populist politics along with specific circumstances that affect how it is expressed in terms of identity politics, political strategies and shifting social bases

Inégalité de genre et mouvement zapatiste. Les femmes s’organisent au Chiapas

This article seeks to reconstruct the historical and geographical dynamics explaining the significant presence of women in the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). First appearing in the poor Mexican state of Chiapas in January, 1994, this new type of revolutionary movement is the culmination of a wide variety of changes modifying the life of indigenous men and women in the region, and particularly, the social relations between the sexes. Making up a third of the Zapatista forces, the women were able to integrate the question of gender and formulate the Revolutionary Law of Women. Without them, the EZNL would have no doubt been a very different kind of movement, even though remaining a military organization dominated by men.Cet article cherche à reconstruire la dynamique historique et géographique qui explique la présence significative des femmes dans l’Armée zapatiste de libération nationale (EZLN). Ce mouvement révolutionnaire d’un nouveau type, qui apparaît en janvier 1994 dans un état pauvre du Mexique, le Chiapas, est l’aboutissement de changements très variés qui ont modifié la vie des Indiens et des Indiennes de la région et particulièrement les rapports sociaux entre les sexes. Formant le tiers des forces zapatistes, les femmes ont pu intégrer le problème du genre et formuler la Loi révolutionnaire des femmes. Sans elles, l’EZLN eût sans doute été un mouvement différent même si cela reste une organisation militaire dominée par les hommes.Kampwirth Karen. Inégalité de genre et mouvement zapatiste. Les femmes s’organisent au Chiapas. In: Cahiers du GEDISST (Groupe d'étude sur la division sociale et sexuelle du travail), N°18, 1997. Hommes et femmes dans le mouvement social. pp. 147-168