Populism

Assistant Director Matt Lucky, Ph.D., reviews Joan Williams’ new book, Outclassed, which reflects on the Democratic Party’s loss of what she calls “middle-status” voters. Williams discusses her book with Bethany McLean and Luigi Zingales on this week’s Capitalisn’t episode, which you can listen to here.

Populist leaders like United States President Donald Trump are zealously challenging the authority of independent technocrats and judges. This backlash follows decades of steadily increasing delegation of policymaking authority to unelected experts, bureaucratic agencies, and the judiciary. In new research, Gabriele Gratton and Jacob Edenhofer argue that such backlash is a predictable development in political environments where majorities are unstable and new political coalitions frequently favor policies at odds with those crafted by social welfare-maximizing technocrats.

Piergiuseppe Fortunato, Tanmay Singh, and Marco Pecoraro research the behavior of populist leaders and parties around the world and how their policies influence subsequent government spending. Their research shows that populists from either side of the ideological spectrum have very little in common in terms of policy despite similar anti-elite rhetoric.

Rodrigo Castro Cornejo discusses the reasons for the rise of left-wing populism in Mexico under Andrés Manuel López Obrador, how López Obrador’s administration has changed Mexico’s political economy in his six years in office, and what this means for the future of populism in Mexico as voters head to the polls on June 2.

Richard Oestreicher explores the recent history of left-wing populism in the United States: its origins, its motivations, and how that populism is likely to mature and transform U.S. politics with it.

George Hawley explores the economic impulses behind parts of the Republican Party’s populist turn and what this means for the GOP going forward.

James Wood explores the sources of populism in the United Kingdom, its recent developments, and what this means for the country’s 2024 general election.

Davide Vampa explores the sources of populism in Italy, its recent developments, and what this means for the country’s 2024 European Parliament election.

Knut Bergmann and Matthias Diermeier discuss the economic origins and developments of Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany party and how the party’s rise reflects, in part, voters’ concerns that mainstream parties are failing to protect the future of Germany’s vibrant manufacturing sector.

Louise Tillin explores the sources of populism in India, its recent developments, and what this means for the country’s 2024 general election, which begins April 19 and ends June 1.