
Uprisings such as the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street signal a resurgence of populist politics in America, pitting the people against the establishment in a struggle over control of democracy. In the wake of its conservative capture during the Nixon and Reagan eras, and given its increasing ubiquity as a mainstream buzzword of politicians and pundits, democratic theorists and activists have been eager to abandon populism to right-wing demagogues and mega-media spin-doctors. Decades of liberal scholarship have reinforced this shift, turning the term populism into a pejorative in academic and public discourse. At best, they conclude that populism encourages an empty wish to express a unified popular will beyond the mediating institutions of government; at worst, it has been described as an antidemocratic temperament prone to fomenting backlash against elites and marginalized groups. Populism's Power argues that such routine dismissals of populism reinforce liberalism as the end of democracy. Yet, as long as democracy remains true to its meaning, that is, rule by the people, democratic theorists and activists must be able to give an account of the people as collective actors. Without such an account of the people's power, democracy's future seems fixed by the institutions of today's neoliberal, managerial states, and not by the always changing demographics of those who live within and across their borders. Laura Grattan looks at how populism cultivates the aspirations of ordinary people to exercise power over their everyday lives and their collective fate. In evaluating competing theories of populism she looks at a range of populist moments, from cultural phenomena such as the Chevrolet ad campaign for Our Country, Our Truck, to the music of Leonard Cohen, and historical and contemporary populist movements, including nineteenth-century Populism, the Tea Party, broad-based community organizing, and Occupy Wall Street.
Can populism be reclaimed as a constructive force for democratic participation rather than dismissed as an inherently antidemocratic or reactionary impulse? Laura Grattan, a scholar of political theory, examines the historical and contemporary usage of populism in American discourse. She argues that the academic and liberal tendency to label populism as a pejorative term limits the potential for collective political action. By re-evaluating the concept, she proposes that populism serves as a necessary mechanism for ordinary citizens to assert influence over their collective fate within neoliberal institutional frameworks.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars and political theorists frequently note the dense, analytical nature of Grattan's prose as she navigates complex debates in democratic theory. Experts highlight this work as a significant contribution to the ongoing academic effort to decouple populism from its strictly negative connotations in modern political science.
Page Count:
272
Publication Date:
2016-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190277645
ISBN-13:
9780190277642
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