What’s behind ‘technopopulism’: a systematic review of its use in the literature

Despite the apparent antithetical nature of its constitutive dimensions, technopopulism has gained traction as a heuristic tool in political research. Yet, the ambiguity surrounding both populism and technocracy raises questions about the conceptual solidity of their combination. To assess it, a systematic literature review of roughly 160 peer-reviewed articles indexed in the Web of Science was conducted. These articles either address both populism and technocracy or explicitly reference technopopulism. Each observation was coded for its geographical focus, conceptualization of populism, technocracy, and technopopulism, and the authors’ stance on the implications of technopopulism for liberal-representative democracy. The findings indicate that, among the 61 studies explicitly addressing technopopulism, roughly a quarter fail to define populism, and over half omit any definition of technocracy. Technopopulism, on its part, seems to be consistently associated with a quite consistent set of features. Still, the varied ways in which these features are combined point to the need for clearer conceptualization when technopopulism is used heuristically, if we are to avoid the same pitfalls that plague the broader literature on populism.