The Romanian Journal of Society and Politics 34 Attila Antal Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Law Institute of Political Science Social Theory Research Group at Institute of Political History antal.attila@ajk.elte.hu ABSTRACT This theoretical study aims to contribute to the literature dealing with populism from a transnational perspective. I will apply the post-structuralist concept of Empire and Multitude developed by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri to theorize transnational populism. This is not the usual way of thinking about populism, because there are several internal debates and tensions between Hardt/Negri and Laclau/Mouffe (Hardt, Negri: 2017). Although there are very important trends (Kioupkiolis, Katsambekis: 2014; Kioupkiolis: 2014) in the critical literature to reconcile the populist and post-hegemonic tendencies as the hegemony of the multitude. This study relies on these tendencies. In the frst part I am investigating the nature of the neoliberal world order as the Empire in the context of hegemony and populism. As it has been analysed in the frst part of this paper, with the crisis of liberal democracy we have entered the era of populist democracy and there is a ferce struggle between the left and the right to defne and maintain the core nature of democracy. It will be argued in the third part that right-wing nationalist populism can be seen as a manifestation of populism in the context of the Empire. I will emphasize the multitude as a counter-populist concept compared to the Empire. In the fourth part I put forward that the multitude as an empty signifer can achieve some reconciliation between Laclau/Mouffe and Hard/Negri. I will also argue that transnational populism needs to have its transnational political subject which should be based on the multitude reinterpreted in populist context. KEYWORDS • Populism • Empire • Multitude • Social Theory • Populist Democracy • Transnational Populism 1. The Neoliberal World Order, Hegemony and Populism 1.1 The Modern and Globalized form of Imperialism In their seminal books Hardt and Negri (2000, 2005) tried to understand the structure of the new world order created by neoliberal globalization. This theory has been improved in their latest book, Assembly (Hardt, Negri: 2017). Hardt and Negri attempted to put forward a post-Marxist theoretical concept named Empire which is a new global form of sovereignty in the era of neoliberalism. The Empire is characterized by a lack of boundaries: “… the concept of Empire posits a regime that effectively encompasses Attila Antal THE POPULISM OF THE EMPIRE AND THE MULTITUDE