The mention of the word "populist" always puts me in a state of mild amusement coupled with a slight bewilderment. This word seems to have come into the public discourse relatively recently. Perhaps it's been there all along and I wasn't paying attention. More to the point I don't quite get what it means. It generally has a negative connotation associated with regardless of the context (e.g. Italy, Brazil, France, UK, etc). I consider the HN crowd to be enlightened. Perhaps someone can explain it to me in simple terms what exactly is meant by the word populist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism#Democracy_and_populis...
The phenomenon is heavily connected with what is called "clientelism", ie where politics becomes ruled by relations of patronage. Imagine a situation where a particular political party literally pays for membership, with the expectation of a vote and to mobilize for certain events. Such structures are not uncommon in rural areas of developing countries, where essentially feudal relations (think the same person, who conveniently owns all the land and employs everyone in an area, has been the mayor of a town for three decades) have been converted into seemingly democratic structures [2].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peronism or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism_in_Latin_America [2] https://u.osu.edu/laspoliticas/2016/10/30/clientelism-in-lat...
very "new", indeed.
it has always been used to describe people that just say whatever the masses want to hear, without actually doing anything to address the issues they campaigned with.
Liberal populism on the other hand implies American patriotism and belief in actual democracy, valuing the ever-varying "melting pot" above concentrated power in corporations, law enforcement and the executive branch, and above any social differences (I think. May be misreading you!)
This is just a very recent and inaccurate conflation with Trumpstuff. Al Gore's 2000 campaign was often described as 'populist'. It's a pretty gooey term.