There seems to be a consensus on the basic properties of the populist phenomenon among scholars: in short, populism can be defined as a semiotic ensemble - treated alternatively as a discourse, a thin ideology or a style - that represents and constitutes an antagonism between the people and the elites and the emergence of a popular will. It can be also drawn from the cross-national research on populism that it deploys through specific practices of political actors and alleged recipients of the populist appeal (the people, the elites, different sectors of civil society). There are, therefore, concrete ideational interactions between political actors - populists and non populists -constituting the diverse manifestations of populism that can be found over the political landscape. These interactions and practices take place in particular socio-economic contexts and areenacted by specific agents; it is at this level where the common denominators and varieties of populist phenomena can be examined. This seminar analyses the commonalities and differences of various types of populist formations in party systems across the globe. At the end of the seminar students are expected to respond to the following questions: How can the concept of populism travel across different party systems in the world and how can it be adapted and readapted to specific contexts? How similarly and differently are populist formations erupting in party systems across the world?