In this Season 3 finale, Fabio sits down with Daniel Basey, his student and a PAL intern, to revisit some of the questions that have guided the project. Can populism be good for democracy, or does it inevitably lead to autocracy? What has PAL learned about the ways aspiring autocrats use law to gain and retain power?
They discuss PAL’s main findings, the forthcoming Cambridge Handbook on Autocratic Legalism, and plans for the project and PALcast’s next season. Daniel also brings social class into the conversation, asking how economic position helps shape support for populist movements. Drawing on studies of fascism’s social base in interwar Germany and examples from present-day Japan, he argues that populism cannot be understood without examining the coalitions that sustain it.