Populism

At the most basic level, populism is a political ideology that holds that the common person is oppressed by an elite in society, which exists only to serve its own interests, and therefore, the instruments of the State need to be grasped from this self-serving elite and instead used for the benefit and advancement of the oppressed masses as a whole. A populist reaches out to ordinary people, talking about their economic and other concerns. Individual Populists have variously promised to "stand up to corporations" and "put people first."

History of Populism

Populism has been a strong component of North American and Latin American political history. In Latin America several charismatic leaders emerged, while in the United States, the formation of such political parties during the late 1800s and early 1900s as the Populist Party, the United States Greenback Party, the Single Tax movement of Henry George, the United States Progressive Party, the Farmer-Labor Party, the Share Our Wealth movement of Huey Long, and the Union Party. Some early left-wing populist parties directly fed into the later emergence of the Socialist movement, while other populist parties have taken on a more right-wing character and fed the careers of people widely viewed as demagogues, such as Father Charles Coughlin.

Modern populism, of all political hues

Populism is still alive and well in various countries around the world. Examples of populists in the modern era include Pauline Hanson in Australia, Winston Peters in New Zealand, Jean-Marie Le Pen in France, Carl I. Hagen in Norway, William Jennings Bryan, Huey Long, Paul Wellstone, Howard Dean and John Edwards in the United States, Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma/Myanmar, Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, Lula in Brazil and Preston Manning in Canada.

Populism has continues to be a force in modern American politics. The 1992 and 1996 third-party Presidential campaigns of Ross Perot, the Presidential campaign in the 1992 Democratic primary of Jerry Brown, the 2003 California gubernatorial campaign of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the 2004 Presidential campaign of former Vermont governor Howard Dean, are all widely seen as modern manifestations of the populist phenomenon.

Populist Methods

Populism is characterized by a sometimes radical critique of the status quo, but on the whole does not have a strong political identity as either a left-wing or right-wing movement. Populism has taken both left-wing and right-wing forms, but lately tends to lean right. In recent years, conservative politicians have increasingly begun adopting populist rhetoric; for example, promising to "get big government off your backs", or to stand up to "the powerful trial lawyer lobby", "the liberal elite", or "the Hollywood elite". Populism has also at times been adopted as a vehicle for extreme radicals; in 1984 the Populist Party name was revived but was used in 1988 as a vehicle for the Presidential campaign of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

Enlightened populism

The word populism is derived from the Latin word populus, which means people in English (in the sense of "I will govern for the people", not in the sense of "There are people visiting us today"). Therefore, populism espouses government by the people as a whole (that is to say, the masses). This is in contrast to elitism or aristocracy, both of which are ideologies which espouse government by a small, privileged group above the masses.

Populism has been a common political phenomenon throughout history. Spartacus could be considered a famous example of a populist leader of ancient times through his slave rebellion against the rulers of Ancient Rome. In more recent times, the French Revolution, though led by wealthy intellectuals, could also be described as a manifestation of populist sentiment against the elitist excesses and privileges of the régime ancien. Abraham Lincoln could not have summed up the populist ideology better when, in his famous Gettysburg Address, he advocated "... government of the people, by the people, for the people."

Descent into demagoguery

A demagogue is a leader who obtains power by appealing to the gut feelings of the public, usually by powerful use of rhetoric and propaganda. H. L. Mencken defined a demagogue as "one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots." The word is nowadays mostly used as a political insult: political opponents are described as demagogues, but people we approve of are "men of the people", or great speechmakers.

In the twentieth century populism gained an altogether more ominous character when dictators such as Juan Peron and Adolf Hitler used demagogery and populist rhetoric to achieve their privileged leadership positions. It could be argued that none of these men were genuine populists because they usually saw the masses as not fit to govern for themselves and therefore their elitist and privileged style of leadership was needed to govern and regulate the behaviour of the masses. Indeed, Adolf Hitler's contempt for the masses was profound; Mein Kampf written by Hitler is replete with sentiments such as "the masses are inherently stupid", not to mention his hatred for democracy and adoration of Social Darwinism.

Though populism is often associated with ideologies such as nationalism and socialism, it is not always necessarily so. Populism can be both left wing and right wing. In the above examples, Juan Peron would be perceived as a left-wing populist; while Adolf Hitler would normally be thought of as a right-wing populist.

History of Populism

Modern populism, of all political hues

Populist Methods

Enlightened populism

Descent into demagoguery

See also