Populism(s), a plural and complex reading of the infamous concept

Concept of imprecise limits, populism is presented as a category, the definition of which is problematic and controversial in a context of general application. Given the variability of situations and the evolution of political practices considered as populist, it is necessary to rethink the concept and its interpretations. The role of Latin America in that exercise can not be underestimated: the existence of a certain intellectual tradition contributes to avoid the reductionism that usually accompanies the concept, allowing to overcome the vision, according to which populism is an anomalous form of politics in tension with democracy. The specificity of this tradition is related in part to a local feature. Under populist forms the Latin American subaltern classes reinvented the "revolutionary" spirit with discourses and nationalist practices. The latter articulate the political with a form of conflict which expresses the social progress on an axis different from left-right. In Argentina, the dichotomy Peronism / anti-Peronism as a driving force of the political life serves as such a typical example.