What is populism?
Populism is a political approach that frames politics as a struggle between 'the people' and a corrupt elite. It can appear on the left (championing economic equality) or the right (emphasizing national identity and cultural grievances). In the 21st century, populist movements have surged globally, challenging liberal democratic norms and institutions from the United States and Europe to Latin America and Asia.
Populism is one of the most important and contested political phenomena of the 21st century — a style of politics that has reshaped democracies worldwide, yet remains difficult to define precisely because it appears in such varied forms across the political spectrum.
At its core, populism divides society into two groups: 'the people' — imagined as a unified, virtuous majority — and 'the elite' — portrayed as corrupt, self-serving, and disconnected from ordinary citizens. Populist leaders claim to be the authentic voice of the people against a system rigged by insiders. This framework is flexible enough to accommodate radically different content: left-wing populism targets economic elites (billionaires, corporations, bankers), while right-wing populism targets cultural elites (intellectuals, media, cosmopolitan liberals) and often scapegoats minorities and immigrants.
The 21st-century populist surge has roots in real grievances. Globalization produced economic winners and losers — manufacturing communities in developed countries lost jobs and status while coastal cities and technology sectors thrived. The 2008 financial crisis demonstrated that elites could crash the economy and escape consequences while ordinary people bore the costs. Rising inequality, wage stagnation, and the perception that democratic governments serve donors rather than voters created fertile ground for anti-establishment politics.
Populism has produced diverse outcomes. In the United States, Donald Trump's 2016 election represented a right-wing populist insurgency against both the Democratic establishment and the Republican mainstream. Britain's Brexit vote channeled populist anger at both the European Union and domestic elites. In Hungary and Poland, populist governments have systematically weakened judicial independence, press freedom, and civil society. In Latin America, populism has a longer history, from Juan Peron to Hugo Chavez, blending economic redistribution with authoritarian tendencies.
The challenge populism poses to liberal democracy is profound. Democratic systems are built on pluralism, institutional checks and balances, minority rights, and compromise. Populism, by claiming that 'the people' have a single, unified will that the leader embodies, tends to view institutional constraints as obstacles to be overcome rather than safeguards to be respected. Independent courts, free media, and opposition parties are recast as enemies of the people. Whether democracies can address the legitimate grievances that fuel populism without succumbing to its authoritarian tendencies is one of the defining questions of contemporary politics.