Publications

My research in democratic theory focuses on populism and its intellectual history in Latin America and Europe, exploring its semantic transformations and its relation to aesthetics, subalternity and precariousness. Below, I provide access to almost all of my published work.

Books

Zicman de Barros, Thomás. 2026. Radical Democracy, Populism and Desire: Inside the Yellow Vests Movement. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (forthcoming).

Zicman de Barros, Thomás, and Miguel Lago. 2022. Do que falamos quando falamos de populismo. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.

Publications with peer-review process

Zicman de Barros, Thomás, and Théo Aiolfi. 2025a. “The Transgressive Aesthetics of Populism“. Politics: 1-19.

———. 2025b. “From sovereignty to créolisation: populist strategies and the Mélenchon-Ruffin split. A response to Rojas-Andrés, Mazzolini, and Custodi“. Journal of Contemporary European Studies 33 (4): 1396-1414.

Zicman de Barros, Thomás. 2024a. “The People versus the Grandees: The Paradox of Claude Lefort’s ‘Populism’“. Philosophy & Social Criticism: 1-21.

———. 2024b. “Populismo, crise estética e massificação: reflexões sobre a transgressão no lulismo e no bolsonarismo.” Lua Nova: Revista de Cultura e Política 122 (August): 1-32. 

———. 2023a. “Les différents populismes des Gilets jaunes : une approche psychosociale.” Nouvelles perspectives en sciences sociales 19 (1): 239-278. 

———. 2023b. “The Polysemy of an Empty Signifier: The Various Uses of Ernesto Laclau’s Puzzling Concept.” Journal of Political Ideologies, online first. 

———. 2022a. “Populism: Symptom or Sublimation? Reassessing the Use of Psychoanalytic Metaphors.” Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society 27 (2): 218–234. 

———. 2021. “Making Claims with No Subjects: A Reply to Lasse Thomassen.” Representation 58 (2), 319–323.

———. 2020a. “Desire and Collective Identities: Decomposing Ernesto Laclau’s notion of demand.” Constellations 28 (4): 511–521.

———. 2020b. “‘Not All Claims Are Representative Claims’: Constructing ‘The People’ in Post-Representative Movements.” Representation 57 (4): 515–30. 

Zicman de Barros, Thomás, Antonis Galanopoulos, and Giorgos Venizelos. 2019. “Is There a Leftwing Anti-Populism? Meet Slavoj Žižek.” International Journal of Žižek Studies 13 (3): 1-10.

Zicman de Barros, Thomás, and Sebastián Ronderos. 2020. “Populismo e Antipopulismo na Política Brasileira: Massas, Lógicas Políticas e Significantes em Disputa.” Aurora. Revista de Arte, Mídia e Política 12 (36): 31–48. 

Publications in edited volumes

Zicman de Barros, Thomás. 2024c. “Political Reversals in Brazil: The Redemption of Lula and the Decline of Bolsonaro“. In Latin America at a Glance: Recent Political and Electoral Trends, edited by Samuele Mazzolini. Polidemos 10. Milano: EDUCatt, 60–81.

———. 2024d. “Psychoanalytic Political Theorization.” In Elgar Research Handbook on Populism, edited by Yannis Stavrakakis and Giorgos Katsambekis. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 325–335.

———. 2022b. “‘It’s All a Matter of Image’: Aesthetics and Radical Democracy in the Yellow Vests Movement, or in Praise of Eugênio Bucci.” In Populism, Protest, and New Forms of Political Organization, edited by Andreas Eder-Ramsauer, Seongcheol Kim, Andy Knott and Marina Prentoulis. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 71–85. 

———. 2022c. “Contribuição de Thomás Zicman de Barros.” In: Tudo por um triz: civilização ou barbárie, edited by João Cezar de Castro Rocha. Curitiba: Kotter Editorial, 237–244.

———. 2019a. “Identité, jouissance et les potentialités démocratiques du populisme.” In Une nouvelle lecture du populisme: psychanalyse et politique, edited by Christian Hoffmann and Joel Birman. Collection “Psychanalyse, Sciences Humaines et Sociales.” Paris: Maison d’Édition Langage, 79–115 (Also published in Portuguese, German and Greek). 

Publications without peer-review

Zicman de Barros, Thomás, Sebastián Ronderos and Jason Glynos. 2022. “Populism in the Making: A Multi-sited Discursive Approach to Brazil’s Fourth Republican Period (1946-1964)”. Populismus Working Paper 15, 1–27.

Book reviews

Zicman de Barros, Thomás. 2024c. “Democratização Algorítmica“. Resenha de Mendonça, Filgueiras e Almeida (2024), Algorithmic Institutionalism: The Changing Rules of Social and Political Life“. Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil.

———. 2023c. “Book Review: Pierre Ostiguy, Francisco Panizza, and Benjamin Moffitt (eds), Populism in Global Perspective: A Performative and Discursive Approach (2021)”. Populism 6 (1), 102–5.

———. 2020c. “A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of radical left populism. Book Review: Giorgos Katsambekis and Alexandros Kioupkiolis (2019), The Populist Radical Left in Europe”. Populism: Newsletter of the Populism Specialist Group, Political Studies Association, 15–16.

Collaborative reports

Zicman de Barros, Thomás. 2020d. “Brazil.” In “Populism and the Pandemic: A Collaborative Report”, edited by Yannis Stavrakakis and Giorgos Katsambekis, 18–20. Populismus Interventions, 7 (special edition).

Other texts

Aiolfi, Théo, and Thomás Zicman de Barros. “The Problem With Left Nationalism”. Jacobin, 29 January 2026.

Santos, Nina, and Thomás Zicman de Barros. “A decisão de voto em uma sociedade digital”. Le Monde diplomatique Brasil 200, 8-9, March 2024.

Zicman de Barros, Thomás, and Miguel Lago. “As transgressões do populismo”. piauí 192, 34–39, September 2022.

Zicman de Barros, Thomás. “Le populisme ‘créole’ de Jean-Luc Mélenchon”. Tocqueville 21, August 2021 [republished by Mediapart].

———. “Lula: a symbol of resistance”. The Chartist 292, 22, May-June 2018.

———. “A esquerda e o dilema da democracia real”. El País Brasil, October 2017.