Grounding Populism upon Political Economy: Organic Crises in Social Structures of Accumulation Theory

While the notion of populism has gained greater conceptual clarity in the work of Ernesto Laclau, its material conditions of existence have not yet been properly theorized. In order to grasp populism's historical specificity, an analysis of the internal dynamics of capitalism is required. A crucial distinction between Liberal and Regulated Social Structures of Accumulation (SSAs) reveals that the types of organic crisis associated with the former are conducive to populist expressions, while, regarding the latter, the opposite is the case. This claim is substantiated via exploration of the types of actors each kind of SSA empowers during the expansion phase, the nature of the systemic breakdown ensuing from each, and the mode of rupture of its associated social consensuses.