Populism is a central idea in the current mass media debates about politics and elections. Nevertheless, like most politics buzzwords, the word often floats in one meaning to some other, and both cultural researchers and journalists use it to denote varied phenomena. What is populism really? Who are the populist market leaders? And what is the relationship between populism and democracy? This reserve answers these queries in a simple and persuasive way, supplying a swift guidebook to populism theoretically and practice..LEARNING MUCH MORE about Populism: AN EXTREMELY Short Introduction

Cas Mudde and Cristobal Rovira Kaltwasser present populism as an ideology that divides society into two antagonistic camps, the ‘real people’ versus the ‘corrupt top notch,’ which privileges the general will of the people most of all. They illustrate the useful power of the ideology through a study of representative populist movements of the modern era: Western right-wing parties, left-wing presidents in Latin America, and the Tea Party motion in america. The authors explore the ambivalent personalities of charismatic populist market leaders such as Juan Domingo Peron, H. Ross Perot, Jean-Marie le Pen, Silvio Berlusconi, and Hugo Chávez. If the strong male head embodies the mainstream type of populism, many resolute women, such as Eva Peron, Pauline Hanson, and Sarah Palin, have also succeeded in creating a populist status, often by exploiting gendered notions of culture.

Although populism is ultimately element of democracy, populist actions constitute an increasing challenge to democratic politics. Comparing political trends across different countries, this persuasive book debates the actual long-term consequences of this challenge could possibly be, as it becomes the spotlight over the bewildering aftereffect of populism on today’s political and social existence.