New dynamics of politics in Western Europe: Right-wing and left-wing populism in the United Kingdom and Germany

European politics, which experienced a great shock after the 2008 and European debt crises, is entering a term in which populism changes central politics by repressing it with its new forms. Populism, which is rapidly determining new forms of politics, has difficulties in defining it as a meaningful ideology on its own. In addition, the fact that political movements produce different structures and discourses by adding populism to themselves makes it difficult to study populism. Recent studies on populism generally emphasize the common discourses and motivations of different populist movements in Europe rather than relying on a specific conceptual framework. Anti-elitism, EU skepticism, and democratization based on different definitions of "people" are at the center of common discourses and motivations. The masses affected by the economic consequences of neoliberalism policies feel lost and insecure. At the same time, the increasing flexibility of identities that have risen with globalization causes the masses of people to assume that their cultural identities are under threat. Right-wing populism, which establishes its central discourse on xenophobia, tries to construct a public image with a common culture through the "other". Left-wing populism, which puts an economy-oriented anti-elitism in the center of its discourse and developed mainly on the axis of theoretical discussions, is practically endeavoring to locate a place for itself in the conflicting relationship between the concepts of class, identity, and people. This study will examine the effects of populism on Western European politics in the context of the transformations caused by neoliberal globalization by comparing the United Kingdom's and Germany's cases. In this context, the dynamics of populism in the political field will scrutinize through the Conservative Party and the Labour Party in the United Kingdom regarding its effect on transforming central politics, and the AfD and Die Linke in Germany in terms of comparison of right-wing and left-wing populist parties.