What is the so-called populist life cycle? Ertuğ Tombuş, political scientist at Humboldt University, uses the example of Turkey to detail the relationship between populism and authoritarianism as one of gradual evolution. His talk looks at the life-cycle of populism and the dilemma populist parties face when they take power: do they become the establishment and listen to democratic voices (no longer populist) or do they reject the establishment including democracy and continue to assert the idea that “I and only I represent the people” (thus becoming authoritarian).