Quotes About Populism

In past history popularly elected governments have been no better and sometimes far worse than overt tyrannies.

Through American history, we have had populist movements that often, often, often have this ugly racial element. But, often, there are warning signs of some deeper social and economic problem.

If there's very strong civic unrest you can see a strong party of the Right emerging, whether it's UKIP [The UK Independence Party] or an even further-right party.

This is the core claim of populism: only some of the people are really the people. Think of Nigel Farage celebrating the Brexit vote by claiming that it had been a "victory for real people" (thus making the 48 percent of the British electorate who had opposed taking the UK out of the European Union somehow less than real—or, put more directly, questioning their status as proper members of the political community).

What the "old establishment" or "corrupt, immoral elites" supposedly have always done, the populists will also end up doing—only, one would have thought, without guilt and with a supposedly democratic justification.

What the journalist Alex Massie wrote in The Spectator offers a warning beyond Britain: If you spend days, weeks, months, years telling people that they are under threat, that their country has been stolen from them, that they have been betrayed and sold down the river . . . that their problem is they're not sufficiently mad as hell, then at some point, in some place something or someone is going to snap.

This book is about the role of interest in a modern economy. It was inspired by a Bastiat-like conviction that ultra-low interest rates were contributing to many of our current woes, whether the collapse of productivity growth, unaffordable housing, rising inequality, the loss of market competition or financial fragility. Ultra-low rates also seemed to play some role in the resurgence of populism as Sumner's Forgotten Man started to lose patience.

Rightist populism is indeed on the march around Europe and the globe. But as the country most attuned to its dangers, Germany can make a claim as early-warning system.

Events in America show the extent to which democracy there is fuelled by populism - Barack Obama's victory is a manifestation not of Washington's need for change, but of America's. That is not how democracy works in England.

I may have been the only candidate in America who failed to ride the wave of anti-establishment anger to victory.

Populism has had as many incarnations as it has had provocations, but its constant ingredient has been resentment, and hence whininess. Populism does not wax in tranquil times; it is a cathartic response to serious problems. But it always wanes because it never seems serious as a solution.

However vain our entire political class or organizations are, in the name of cynicism we cannot bend towards authoritarian populism.

If your work doesn't speak to people, it's beyond comprehension and risible, but if people engage with it, you become tarred with the brush of populism.

However, in a populistic culture like ours, which seems to lack a responsible elite with political and moral autonomy, and in which it is possible to exploit the wildest currents of public sentiment for private purposes, it is at least conceivable that a highly organized, vocal, active, and well-financed minority could create a political climate in which the rational pursuit of our well-being and safety would become impossible.

Being hated by the right people was no impediment to success. The unpolished were everywhere the majority.

The question for Obama is how he can rein in the furies of populism while making us all feel the malefactors of great wealth are being sufficiently punished.

Donald Trump has shown no interest in working toward increasing the minimum wage, no interest in doing anything but immigrant baiting, no interest in doing anything but filling the swamp with a band of billionaires who are simply trying to help the wealthy.

Democratic government is difficult. It is much more difficult than populists claim. It's not like running a business or a police force. It demands compromise.

'Populism' is a compliment to me. We envision a different Europe where every E.U. country should have the freedom to decide its own economic policies.

I've fought very hard against populism throughout my political career. I'm very happy that Greece now has a moderate, results-oriented, non-populist government.

Media populism means appealing to people directly through media. A politician who can master the media can shape political affairs outside of parliament and even eliminate the mediation of parliament.

Politicians and leaders who see the media as 'the enemy within' divide society into two clashing cultural camps. Populist demagogues benefit from binary oppositions.

You see in times of crisis that extremist forces, populist forces, have a better ground to oversimplify things and to manipulate feelings. Feelings of fear.

It's a very beautiful word, populism. I'm proud to be a populist.