How Do You Know a Populist When You See One?: QuickTake Q&A

Few terms have had as sudden a resurgence in recent years as populism. It is used daily to describe a phenomenon visiting the developed world, as political leaders such as Donald Trump in the U.S., Nigel Farage in Britain, Marine Le Pen in France and the comedian Beppe Grillo in Italy take on the establishment. These individuals have varying political agendas, as did notable populists of the past. What unites them is a style of conducting politics.

Unlike socialism, fascism, liberalism, Islamism and pretty much every other “ism” in politics, populism has little content. Cas Mudde, an associate professor at the University of Georgia, has called it a “thin” ideology that amounts to the belief in a “pure” people and a corrupt elite. The simplest way to think about populism may be as a tool box for conducting politics of any flavor. There is little of substance connecting populist Hugo Chavez, the late radical socialist leader of Venezuela, with the U.K.’s Farage, whose economic preferences lean toward the conservatism of Margaret Thatcher.