Is History Repeating Itself? Populism in the Weimar Republic and Modern Germany

Abstract

The recent rise of far-right populist parties is often compared to the rise of Fascism in the 20th century which ended up destroying democratic institutions. This paper analyzes the abolition of the Weimar Republic by the Nazis from the perspective of populism and compares it to the rise of modern populism. We measure populism by analyzing the parliamentary speeches of parties from the Weimar Republic and modern Germany using an established dictionary method. Our main finding is that modern Germany follows a similar trajectory as the Weimar Republic. While the general level of populism was stable over time, both states saw a reversal in which parties were populist. In their early years, left-wing parties were the most populist while right-wing parties became the most populist later.

Keywords: Populism, Nazi, Weimar, Radical, Democracy, Right-wing, Far-right