Populism, Populists, and the Crisis of Political Parties. - A Comparison of Italy, Austria, and Germany 1990-2015.

The parliamentary elections of 2017 in Germany and Austria as well as the general elections in Italy 2018 have deeply changed the party and government system. The German party Alternative for Germany has been prominently elected into the parliament, the Austrian Freedom Party forms part of the government together with the Austrian People's Party, Italy has its first government of populists with the 5 Stars Movement and the Northern League. Those who seek to understand how these transformations came about in just a short period of time, will find some illuminating answers in this book. Analysis, developments, assessments and trends by renowned historians and political scientists prove that populism in these three countries has a history on which it can successfully build. This includes the crisis of historical parties which have continuously lost their political cohesiveness and trustworthiness.

Michael Gehler studied History and German Literature at the University of Innsbruck (1981-1988); Associate Professor at the Institute for Contemporary History there (1999-2006); since 2006 Professor for Modern German and European History at the Institute of History of the University of Hildesheim; elected Jean-Monnet Chair for three times; Director of the Institute of Modern and Contemporary Historical Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) (2013-2017) and corresponding member of the ÖAW; Member of the Liaison Commitee of the Historians close to the European Commission; Research Topics: European Integration und International History, recent book: »Europa. Ideen - Institutionen - Vereinigung - Zusammenhalt«, Reinbek.