Quotes About Populism

As the U.S., much of Europe, and the U.K. shift toward the political right, the rhetoric grows more insular, defensive, and protective.

Cas Mudde, a Dutch political scientist, provides the most useful definition of populism: an ideology "that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic groups: 'the pure people' and 'the corrupt elite,' and argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people.

In many ways, Trump appeals to people's smallness, their fears, whatever part of them wants to look backward.

If centrist parties face the challenges and start working for their people more efficiently, the ground for left- or right-wing populism will become less fertile.

There's very widespread grassroots support for Donald Trump, one that Republicans have not seen before.

The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.

The popular tendency is to listen approvingly to the most extreme statements and claims of politicians and orators who seek popularity by declaring their own country right in everything and other countries wrong in everything.

Tea Party, far from representing a new strain of libertarian populism, was in fact another revival of White Christian America.

Hamilton said, he would follow the classic path of a populist demagogue: "I would mount the hobbyhorse of popularity, I would cry out usurpation, danger

Populist politics only appeals to intuitive logic, because that which is intuitive can be comprehended by the masses.

Today, the voice of populist infantile politics is amplified by social media allowing the ignorant to claim equality with the informed.

The global attack on women, and the connected attempt by right-wing populism to reshape them into characters from The Handmaid's Tale, excludes no nationality, no social class, no religion and no privilege.

Populism, literally, means speaking for 'the people.' In practice it means demagoguery.

Ford Nation never left. Ford Nation has always been there.

Mr. Trump is actually going to accomplish something, and that's why Mr. Trump's campaign has caught on like wildfire across the country and we see these huge crowds that come out.

American populism is no stranger to our political life. From the earliest anti-Federalists to William Jennings Bryan, Huey Long, and George Wallace, and many in between, we've sampled the populist temptation, often in times of national distress and dislocation.

A willingness by politicians to say what they think the public want to hear, and a willingness by large parts of the public to believe what they are told by populist politicians, has led to a deterioration in our public discourse.

The candidate who promises the most has the best chance of winning.

Whether it was in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher, the 1950s under Churchill and Macmillan or in the early days of the Cameron administration, when our party has spoken for the people we have won.

When elections are not democratic, even the most populist discussions become superficial, disconnected from real power; they are theatre.

Algo similar ocurre con líderes populistas que pretenden encarnar a grandes personajes de la historia, como a Simón Bolívar o a Benito Juárez. No son más que una farsa que repite grandes acontecimientos en forma grotesca. Muchas veces la repetición ocurre como una bufonada desastrosa. Es lo que ocurrió en Venezuela con Hugo Chávez y lo que está pasando en México con López Obrador.

Podemos observar tendencias posdemocráticas en el Brasil de Jair Bolsonaro, la Hungría de Viktor Orbán, la India de Narendra Modi y, sin duda, también en el México de López Obrador.

lado amargo, incómodo e irónico: la independencia acaba degradada por un ridículo emperador, la reforma liberal desemboca en la dictadura y la revolución acaba en manos de burócratas autoritarios. Me temo que la transición a la democracia acabe naufragando gracias a un demagogo populista

el populismo que hoy gobierna a México es una criatura de la institucionalidad revolucionaria