Category: populism

How populism can strengthen democracy, not imperil it

     

Populism has long been a contested and ambiguous concept, notes Michael Kazin, who teaches history at Georgetown University: Scholars debate whether it is a creed, a style, a political strategy,… Read more »

Populism the ‘most menacing challenger’ to democracy

     

European democracy seems to be in jeopardy, and there is no shortage of culprits, notes Takis S. Pappas, associate professor of comparative politics at the University of Macedonia and coeditor… Read more »

Putting the populist revolt in its place: economic have-nots & cultural backlash

     

In many Western democracies, this is a year of revolt against elites, notes Joseph S. Nye, Jr., University Professor at Harvard University. As Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens put it,… Read more »

The Week Democracy Died?

     

Across the affluent, established democracies of North America and Western Europe, the last years have witnessed a meteoric rise of figures who harness a new level of anger that is… Read more »

What failed Soviet coup tells us about 21st-century populism

     

The abortive coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev twenty-five years ago this week and its aftermath have echoes today, argues Stephen Sestanovich, a Columbia University professor and senior fellow at… Read more »

Brexit the ‘most damaging blow ever inflicted on liberal democratic international order’

     

Make no mistake about it. Britain’s vote to leave the EU is the most damaging blow ever inflicted on the liberal democratic international order created under US auspices after 1945…. Read more »

The populist perils of illiberal paeans

     

Modern democracies operate within a framework of rationalism. Dismantle it and the space is filled by prejudice. Fear counts above reason; anger above evidence. Lies claim equal status with facts,… Read more »

Venezuela: Edge of the Precipice

     

The Organization of American States will meet Thursday to discuss the deepening crisis in Venezuela, where the opposition is pushing forward with efforts to activate a recall referendum of President… Read more »

Poland’s ‘populist form of corporate nationalism’

     

Europe’s illiberal democracies have gained a new member, and the world has taken notice, analyst Henry Foy observes. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the Law and Justice party had been… Read more »