What Is Populism? | Jan-Werner Mller

136 pages | 5 1/2 x 8 1/2Cloth 2016 | ISBN 9780812248982 | $19.95t | Outside the Americas 14.99Ebook editions are available from selected online vendorsNot for sale in the British Commonwealth except CanadaView table of contents

"Populism is not just antiliberal, it is antidemocraticthe permanent shadow of representative politics. That's Jan-Werner Mller's argument in this brilliant book. There is no better guide to the populist passions of the present."Ivan Krastev, International New York Times

"No one has written more insightfully and knowledgeably about Europe's recent democratic decay than Jan-Werner Mller. Here Mller confronts head on the key questions raised by the resurgence of populism globally. How is it different from other kinds of politics, why is it so dangerous, and how can it be overcome? Mller's depiction of populism as democracy's antipluralist, moralistic shadow is masterful."Dani Rodrik, Harvard University

"The most useful work to comprehend Trump's appeal is What Is Populism? (2016) by Princeton University political scientist Jan-Werner Mller. In this essential book, Mller defines populism's most salient characteristicsantielitism, antipluralism, exclusivityand explains Trump and other populists through that framework. It is a quick read, and worth every page."The Washington Post

In this groundbreaking volume, Jan-Werner Mller argues that at populism's core is a rejection of pluralism. Populists will always claim that they and they alone represent the people and their true interests. Mller also shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, populists can govern on the basis of their claim to exclusive moral representation of the people: if populists have enough power, they will end up creating an authoritarian state that excludes all those not considered part of the proper "people." The book proposes a number of concrete strategies for how liberal democrats should best deal with populists and, in particular, how to counter their claims to speak exclusively for "the silent majority" or "the real people."

Analytical, accessible, and provocative, What Is Populism? is grounded in history and draws on examples from Latin America, Europe, and the United States to define the characteristics of populism and the deeper causes of its electoral successes in our time.

Jan-Werner Mller is Professor of Politics at Princeton University. He is author of several books, most recently Contesting Democracy: Political Ideas in Twentieth Century Europe. He contributes regularly to London Review of Books, the Guardian, and the New York Review of Books.

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What Is Populism? | Jan-Werner Mller