The Challenge of Populism

Abstract

Populism is not a determinate political phenomenon, but a heuristic category deployed to diagnose the sources of danger to well established representative democracy through the workings of its core institutions. As a political charge, populism is deployed by defenders of established parties to denounce interlopers who threaten them at the ballot box and in less formal settings. When actualised, it is a natural political retribution for governmental ineffectuality in face of protracted crisis. Populism is no danger for Korea. The level of risk for populist triumph is the reciprocal of prior failure in democratic government. Both the Trump Presidency and the Brexit Referendum are populist responses to prior governmental failure in well-established democracies. Populism is always a consequence, not a cause, of political failure.