populism

nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechmostly written

Populism is politics that appeals to ordinary people against the elite. Accused of populism.

It is a style rather than a programme, and it appears on both left and right. Populism defines a pure people against a corrupt elite, which is why it is so hard to argue with.

Definitions of populism

1nounpopulismPolitics that appeals to ordinary people against the elite.C1
“Populism won the argument and lost the election.”

populism is a politics.

Where it comes from

From populus + -ism.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

populism in the wild

Within political science and other social sciences, different definitions of populism have been employed.
Populism
Black populism was a broad-based, independent political movement started by Black Americans following the end of the Reconstruction era.
Black populism
Right-wing populism, also called right populism and national populism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics with populist rhetoric and themes.
Right-wing populism
Right-wing populism in the Western world is sometimes associated with ideologies such as anti-environmentalism, anti-globalisation, nativism, and protectionism.
Right-wing populism
Poporanism is a Romanian version of nationalism and populism.
Poporanism

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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