Populism
So-called ‘populist’ parties have many different grievances. Lumping them together won’t help defeat them
Populism is the buzzword of the moment. But, Takis Pappas explains, there are three kinds of parties aggregated under the populist label: anti-democrats, nativists and ‘pure’ populists. Lumping them together is both misleading and politically perilous because they do not spring from the same source or the same set of grievances. Instead of lamenting a generic, ill-defined populism, we need […]
Shooting for freedom: what guns teach us about US political culture
The right to bear arms is a fundamental tenet of freedom for many Americans. But it is often met with incomprehension in the UK and Europe. Dylan McLean unpicks the origins of America’s gun culture, tracing it back to the militia in Tudor society, and explains how firearms are associated with personal freedom and the […]
Pick of 2016: the best of Democratic Audit
2016 was an extraordinary year. With Donald Trump’s presidency less than three weeks away, Article 50 due to be invoked in March, local and mayoral elections in the UK and ground-shifting votes in Europe, 2017 promises more seismic change. Here’s a selection of some of Democratic Audit’s most thought-provoking pieces from 2016. Similar Posts
Trump portrayed ‘identity politics’ as a form of corruption
Donald Trump attacked the US government and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as a ‘swamp’ of corruption and vested interests. But corruption in the commonly-understood sense of bribery is relatively rare in the United States. Instead, Bo Rothstein says, Trump was able to persuade white, working-class voters that Democrat ‘identity politics’ was a form of corruption that disadvantaged them. […]
Book review | What is Populism? by Jan-Werner Müller
In What is Populism?, Jan-Werner Müller provides a timely perspective on the pressing question of what populism is and how to respond to it. Defining populism as anti-pluralist, elite-critical politics with a moral claim to representation, he cautions that populists are both willing and able to govern and may therefore deform democracy by turning states towards […]
When Americans believe in redistribution and the right to a job, they’re more likely to vote Democrat
The concept of democracy often means different things to different people. But are there elements on which people can agree or disagree? Judd R. Thornton and Kris Dunn examine the relationship between US citizens’ beliefs about democracy and how they vote. They find that while most people believe that free elections and protecting civil rights are […]
How scholars turned their attention to the populist radical right
In this extract from his new book, The Populist Radical Right: A Reader, Cas Mudde looks at the boom in academic studies of populist radical right parties. He identifies three waves of scholarship since 1945 – the most recent of which has come to trump the study of all other party families put together, despite their relative lack […]
A century ago, Warren Harding prefigured Trump’s brand of strongman nationalism
Donald Trump will not be the first US president to espouse a closed-borders, ‘America First’ nationalism. Luke Cooper traces the roots of Trump’s protectionism back to century-old arguments made by Warren Harding, the 29th President. Similar PostsPopulist politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are plundering history for persuasive purposesBrian Klaas: ‘The incentives for a […]
In an era of rising populism, what would President Trump mean for the ‘special relationship’?
A victory for Donald Trump would pose uncomfortable questions for Britain about the future of the UK-US relationship, writes Tim Oliver. Despite similarities between the nascent populism in both countries, Trump presents so many unknowns that the core of the relationship could be strained as never before. Similar PostsLend us your ears: fixing the crisis of […]
We need to talk about our democracy
Recent days have seen ferocious attacks against the roles of both judges and parliamentarians in our democratic system. Alan Renwick and Meg Russell write that this assault is just the latest in a series of signs that the quality of our democracy is under threat. They argue for concerted efforts to defend that democracy: pushing back […]
Democratic Audit's core funding is provided by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Additional funding is provided by the London School of Economics.