What is populism?
The nutshell
Populism is a style of politics built on one big divide. It puts 'the people' on one side and 'the elite' on the other. The elite means a small, powerful group that populists say ignores what most people want.
Every fact on this page is attributed to a named, non-partisan source. Each source tag — likeIDEA — opens where a fact comes from.
The basics
What populism means
Populism is a way of doing politics. It rests on one big idea. Society splits into two groups. On one side is the people, meaning the ordinary majority. On the other is the elite, a small and powerful few. A populist movement claims to speak for the people against that elite.IDEA
Left, right, or both?
Populism is not fixed to one side of politics. It can join up with left-wing ideas or right-wing ideas. International IDEA notes that populist movements appear on both the left and the right.IDEA A left-wing populist and a right-wing populist can both use the same people-against-the-elite idea, even while wanting very different things.
Why the word is argued over
There is no single agreed meaning of the word populism. The House of Lords Library, which writes balanced briefings for members of the House of Lords, notes that people disagree over what the term means.HoL Encyclopaedia Britannica calls populism one of the most disputed terms in political science.EB
Populist is not the same as popular
The word populist is often used as an insult in the news. Many academics, though, use it as a plain description of a style of politics, not as a judgement. Being popular means something different. A popular policy is simply one that many people like.
- International IDEA notes that populist movements can appear on both the left and the right of politics.
- What populist movements share is the split between 'the people' and 'the elite', not one fixed set of policies.
- The Conversation notes that experts still debate whether populism is an ideology, a strategy or a style.
- The word 'populist' is often used as an insult, though many academics use it as a neutral description.
- Populism is not the same as being popular. A popular policy simply means one that many people like.
- Calling a party populist does not place it on the left or the right, because populism attaches to both.
The deep end6 min
The core idea, and why it is called thin
Most definitions of populism start from a single divide, between the people and the elite. International IDEA describes populism as a way of doing politics in which a single people stands in opposition to the elite.IDEA Scholars often call populism a thin set of ideas. On its own it does not say how an economy should be run or how a country should be governed. It attaches to a fuller ideology, on the left or the right, and takes its detail from that.
Left-wing and right-wing populism
Because populism is thin, it takes different forms. Writing for The Conversation, Dr Benjamin Moffitt, a politics academic at Monash University, describes left-wing populists as focused on economic elites and on sharing wealth more widely, while right-wing populists focus more on cultural elites and on the nation.TC Both forms still rest on the same people-against-the-elite frame. Britannica likewise records the word being applied to movements on both the left and the right.EB
Where experts disagree
Populism is one of the most argued-over words in political science, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.EB The Conversation sets out three open questions. The first is what populism actually is, an ideology, a political strategy or a style. The second is whether populism harms democracy or acts as a correction to it. The third is how left-wing and right-wing versions relate.TC The House of Lords Library reaches a similar point. Its 2017 briefing records that there is no agreed meaning of populism.HoL
Populist as description, and populist as insult
In everyday news, populist often works as a criticism. In political science it is more often a neutral label for the people-against-the-elite style, whoever uses it. Keeping those two uses apart matters on a topic like this. A movement described as populist is not automatically good or bad. What the label marks is a way of framing politics, not a fixed set of policies and not a party's place on the left-right scale.