This is where, I feel, Nirvaan Nadeem has it all wrong in his piece The March of the Populists (TFT, August 09-15), where he depicts
populism as merely a product of uncouth, declining behavioural and cultural standards.
One of the more influential definitions of
populism as ideology is that of the Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde:
Populism is 'a thin-centered ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic groups, 'the pure people' versus 'the corrupt elite,' and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonte generale (general will) of the people.'
Populism is a political ideology which aims to appeal to ordinary people, who feel that their concerns are being disregarded by their established national elites.
Historians and political scientists have argued for decades about what exactly
populism is, and they haven't always come to the same conclusions.
In "
Populisms: A Quick Immersion", Professor Torre analyzes
populism globally and through the lens of Latin America, where populists have governed since the 1930s and 1940s up to the present.
Bhutto and Mujib who competed for genuine
populism. In 1988, Benazir Bhutto returned as Daughter of the East and claimed that the post-Zia establishment tamed her populist promises, but between her and Nawaz Sharif's interrupted rule over the 1990s, social benefits were outpaced by policies of deregularisation.
While describing the reasons for rising
Populism, McNamara goes on to point out that, in countries with the longest records of low fertility, new fears of race suicide are fueling popular populist and ethnic-nationalist movements.
political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established 'elite' groups." This is old politics but, new politics has combined
populism with a type of nationalism which views identification with one's own nation and support for its interests to the exclusion or detriment of the other nations.
And this electoral success is itself a microcosm of a wider upending of the global political landscape shown in the Global
Populism Database which is a comprehensive tracker of populist discourse.
Global
populism on the rise and showing few signs of stopping Andrew Hammond March 21, 2019 15:27
DONALD TRUMP officially has recognized the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the interim president of Venezuela, leaving critics to wonder if this is another switch to right-wing
populism in Latin America.
Populism has become one of the defining political movements of the twenty-first century, and Carlos de la Torre's
Populisms: A Quick Immersion works to demystify it.
In the West, the rise of
populism, from the election of President Donald Trump in the US, to the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union and the election of populist leaders across Europe, has been frequently cited as a threat to democracy.
