Antonio Maria Baggio & Maria-Gabriella Baldarelli 
Populism and Accountability 
Interdisciplinary Researches on Active Citizenship

This book takes into consideration the development of different forms of populism in various countries with democratic political systems over the past two decades. Despite the diversity existing between current populisms, common elements have emerged: the tendency to diminish the role of political representation, the centrality of the ‘charismatic leader, ‘ the nationalistic idealization of ‘people’ that undermine international agreements. How do these phenomena affect the instruments, rules, and culture of democracy?  Why does populism receive strong acclaim? How can leaders respond to the real needs that can be at the basis of populisms without abandoning democratic principles?

Using an interdisciplinary approach which emphasizes accountability and responsibility, this book addresses these and other issues facing current and future corporate leaders. The chapters offer suggestions on how to choose between major worthy causes, how to effectively measure the outcomes of social responsible action, and how to navigate the challenges of accountability. Providing practical tools to combat the root of populism in business and community, this book is intended for practitioners, researchers, and students of business and management, politics, and other related disciplines such as public administration, social science, and the humanities. 

Table of Content

​Populism and Accountability: Interdisciplinary researches – An Introduction.- Part 1: Populism and Accountability: Introductory Studies.- Populism and its Definitions. 

Interpretations and Perspectives of a Multifaceted Political Model.- Accountability and Stakeholder engagement: politics and accounting in dialogue to improve democracy.- Part 2: Accountability versus Populism: Intersections between Politics and Business Economicis.- Business democratic value at stake: a Business Ethics Perspective on embedded social and political responsibility.- Property, responsibility and the community. 


Toward a new concept of property.- Citizens participation in deliberation process and multidimensional accountability: a possible virtuous relationship.- Accounting systems of Post-Communist Balkan States: 


Towards accounting harmonization?.- The role of local authorities in opposing populism 


through social accountability.- Part 3: The role oflocal authorities in opposing populism 


through social accountability.- In search of the relationship between democracy and populism from a multidimensional perspective. 


Some paths: accountability, deliberation, co-governance.- Sense of belonging and disillusionment, a phenomenological reading of community dynamics.- Accountability and Populism: an anthropological perspective.- Part 4: Leaders and Masses in Populist Phenomena.- Populism and Political Leadership.- The psychological roots of populism.- The populist leader: a profile that emerged from the investigation perspective of phenomenological psychopathology.

About the author

Antonio Maria Baggio is Professor of Political Philosophy at Sophia University Institute (IUS) of Loppiano (Florence, Italy), where is he also Director of the Center for Research in Politics and Human Rights. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Rome, Italy). Maria-Gabriella Baldarelli is Associate Professor of General and Applied Accounting at the University of Bologna (Italy). She has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Ancona. Her research interests include corporate social responsibility; ethical, social and environmental accounting and accountability; sustainability in tourist enterprises; and responsible and accessible tourism.

Samuel O Idowu is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance at London Metropolitan University (UK). His main research focuses on corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate governance, ethics and accounting. He has led several edited books in CSR and is the editor-in-chief of two Springer’s reference books; Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility and Dictionary of Corporate Social Responsibility.