This article by James M. Price appeared on the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy’s (POCLAD) website, January 29th, 2019.

Populism is a term frequently used in ways that foster confusion and controversy. It is sometimes thrown about in a disparaging manner, in conjunction with other words like demagoguery, to create fear about an idea or to discredit a political opponent. Establishment politicians and the corporate media often describe populists as those who use highly emotional rhetoric to present questionable ideas in an overly simplistic or opportunistic manner.

What is Populism?

Webster’s Dictionary defines populism as, “an egalitarian political philosophy or movement that celebrates and promotes the views and interests of the common people.”1 At its core, populism involves a criticism of the establishment and an affirmation of the common people. It is a product of an antagonistic relationship between the people and the elites.2

Used in this context, the people can be grouped along racial, class, ethnic, or national lines. When employing the nation as a synonym for the people, all of the citizens within a particular national governmental jurisdiction are regarded as sovereign and belonging to the group. Thus, nationalism is sometimes an important value within a populist movement. This nationalistic sub-theme can be inclusionary, as in a progressive democratic movement calling for the fair treatment of all people within a nation’s boundaries — including the most economically and politically vulnerable — or exclusionary, as in a reactionary movement reflecting racially, culturally bigoted or nativist, anti-immigrant sentiments.3

The elites referred to by populists include the dominant power structure’s economic, political, cultural, military, and media establishment, who are asserted to be placing their interests and those of other select groups, sometimes including foreign nations and/or immigrants, above the interests of the people. This can include wealthy oligarchs and large corporations who control the economic and political levers of power, and frequently, even the government itself. MORE…