In political science, the term populism has a long history of which I can only offer a small sketch. The paradigmatic cases are to be found in Latin American po

In political science, the term populism has a long history of which I can only offer a small sketch. The paradigmatic cases are to be found in Latin American politics over the last century, especially the Argentinian leader Juan Peron [1]. In its classic form, the term is used to describe a wave of political parties who were neither pro-communist nor pro-capitalist, who found great success in countries that were both electorally democratic while also highly economically polarized. In countries that had traditionally been governed by a small cultural/economic/military elite, this new generation of political leaders began to win campaigns by vote-seeking from the disenfranchised through whatever means, typically through a combination of anti-status quo rhetoric and redistributive policies. This isn't just to suggest that they weren't "authentically" in favor of the poor or anything like that, but to understand how such a phenomenon can change the dynamics of democracies, where politicians are lead less by values (whether they be classically conservative, pro-market or socialist) than vote-seeking at any cost. It's also why we can find both "left-wing" and "right-wing" variants of populism, depending on exactly the types of rhetoric (anti-immigrant or anti-rich, for example) and policies (build the wall or tax the rich) that are employed. 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peronism or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism_in_Latin_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism_in_Latin_America [2] https://u.osu.edu/laspoliticas/2016/10/30/clientelism-in-latin-america-case-study-of-mexico/ https://u.osu.edu/laspoliticas/2016/10/30/clientelism-in-lat...