P22 ‘New Public Populism’ an emerging construct

Panel Chairs

Corresponding and Review group chair 

• Alex Murdock, London South Bank Univ. alex.murdock@lsbu.ac.uk

Co-chairs

• Stephen Barber, Univ of East London. 
• Gene Brewer, University of Georgia. 

Panel Topic Description

This panel investigates the extent to which the era of populism will lead to a semi-permanent transformation or at least evolution in the way that public administration and services are governed and administered. Submissions are welcome which address the broad issues of populism and public administration. We particularly will encourage and solicit papers from academics familiar with countries which have been affected by populist politicians and movements .

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of ‘populism’ and ‘populist leaders’ and this has demanded a new response by public management. The USA, Brazil Italy and Hungary are clear examples of the phenomenon. The shelf life of populist leaders can be relatively short, as evidenced in the UK by the eviction of Boris Johnson from office. Work by academics such as Bauer have identified the challenge of populism to public administrators ( whilst viewing it as a Right wing issue) .However there has been a literature drawing attendion to concerns over left wing populism (Cusodi 2025)

To understand this challenge, we adopted the concept of New Public Populism which is a departure in logic from NPM and NPL and which we seek to develop further theoretically here. It represents a contradiction for the delivery of public services when the very citizens who need to be satisfied politically are in many cases also the most vulnerable and need to be cared for.

With this conceptual lens, we want to explore the continuing implications of a populist trend even when the populist leaders are defenestrated. The persistence of populism in public discourse (whether of the left or right) has implications for the creation of public policies and for the operational environment of public managers. We argue that it challenges the traditional concepts of public service value, neutrality and the rule of law.

Even in countries where populist leaders have been kept at bay or removed from office, disenchantment, social division and anti-elitism have given rise to simplistic answers and contradictory positions. Since populism is neither inherently logical nor rational, it is difficult to address in a coherent fashion. And yet public services are expected to tackle the broad array of social concerns which underpin the growth of populism. After all it is the most vulnerable in society who rely on heath, social care and welfare, but they are also most likely to be part of the demographic which identifies with populist rhetoric and vote for populist politicians.

Relevance to the Conference Theme

There is a growing literature in public management responding to both populism and concerns about its implications for public administration ethics and values.

However we argue that public administration scholarship has to confront a reality of populism as not simply a passing trend but a more embedded reality.

In our work we have In developed the concept of New Public Populism in which we argue that there is a permanent departure in logic from NPM and NPL that appears capable of outliving populist leaders. This represents a contradiction for the delivery of public services when the very citizens who need to be satisfied politically are in many cases also the most vulnerable and need to be cared for.

We seek through this panel to encourage an active debate informed by colleagues familiar with countries where populism of the right and left has been manifest.