Populism - what does it mean and why is it bad?

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Original post by PicardianSocialist

Yes, I think the word is basically useless in any kind of academic conversation. But I would still define it as trying to use an 'average Joe vs the elite' mentality - which Rothbard did.

'Average Joe vs. the elite..'
Couldn't have said it better myself.

Reply 21

The Socktor

Original post by Clumsy_Chemist

Could anyone who knows politics well describe what populism means and why it's used as a derogatory term?

As I understand it it means appealling to the masses, doing what they want done, which to me seems like a good thing in a democracy. Isn't it exactly what politicians should be doing?

Yet it's used to describe the whipping up of anger by the BNP, or the Daily Fail, or Hitler, and generally used to dismiss a poltician's actions as bad.

Anyone explain? :smile:

If I'm not mistaken, it suggests that basically the majority is always right, and proponents of it support certain policies just because the majority support it.

Democracy means "rule by the people", not blind support of the people. Some newspapers (the Sun, for instance) and parties (UKIP, BNP, etc.) take a populist stance because it helps them appeal to the the general population and thus sell more papers/gain votes.

The problem with this is that facts aren't democratic, and the majority aren't always right (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_populum) and when it comes to things like say, Climate Change (which I doubt the majority population accept), we are less likely to take action against it if the experts on the subject are ignored.

Also, we've got to take into account human rights, personally I think the fact that the Sun has a populist stance is enough reason to oppose it... but well... anyway, always following the majority can cause what's known as "tyranny of the majority" - i.e. in which the majority grant the government the ability to infringe upon the rights of the minority.

Many democratic countries throughout history and the modern world have imposed laws which are/were racist, sexist, homophobic, religiously intolerant, etc. they remained it place because the majority supported them.

So, that just leaves the question: if 51% of people wanted to enslave the other 49%, would it be justified by the fact that the majority supported it?

Reply 22

wessexboy

Was the poor spelling in the book too?

Reply 23

nulli tertius

Populism is not about the elite versus the masses. It is about the popular versus the rational.

Cutting taxes or increasing NHS spending may be popular policies but they are not populist policies because they are deliverable by government.

Deporting all immigrants is a populist policy because looked at rationally it cannot be done. The resources involved in doing it coupled with the disruption to society from the departure of immigrants means it is practically unachievable.

Likewise building a wall and making Mexico pay for it is a populist policy whereas building a wall at the expense of the US is not. It is irrational to believe that Mexico would pay for something it didn't want to happen.

Brexit teeters on the brink of populism because at the time of the referendum its advocates had no plan for achieving it, but they believed mistakenly that the government did have such a plan.

Populism - what does it mean and why is it bad?

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