Populism’s Claims: The Struggle between Privilege and Equality

Abstract

Who are the ‘people’ supporting ‘populist’ leaders and what are their claims? The argument I seek to develop here is that ‘populist’ mobilisations (of all kinds) are a reassessment of the continued reality of illiberal capitalism and the withering away of the ideological force of the illusion of Enlightenment liberalism and democracy. Hence, rather than focusing on ‘illiberal democracy’ I will focus on the inherently ‘illiberal’ aspect of capitalism and on the irresolvable contradiction of the ideological articulation of democracy and capitalism that has repeatedly produced a ‘populist’ kind of conflict. Indeed, we find similar anti-liberal and anti-capitalist popular mobilisations scattered throughout European history in the nineteenth century, taking the form either of ‘resistance’ revolts seeking to preserve rights and duties embedded in obligations attached to privileges of status, and ‘transformative’ revolutions seeking to establish an egalitarian society.