Why have people across the world turned towards populist politics? What are the impacts of populism on democracy? In contrast to typical top-down explanations for populism, I answer these questions through an ethnographic study of local political groups in two politically-divided cities, Traverse City, Michigan, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. I focus on the right-wing populism of the Tea Party and Trump in the US, and the left-wing populism of the Kirchnerist wave of Peronism in Argentina, as well as Occupy Wall Street and Bernie Sanders in the US. The ideological variation within these groups and the timing of my two case studies allowed for study of how the societal impacts differ depending on the type of populism. I distinguish between left and right populism, anti-establishment (grassroots), personalistic (leader-centric) populism, and populism that is in versus out of power. I conducted over 170 political history interviews in my two field sites, conducted during the 2016 presidential campaign and early Trump presidency in Michigan, and during the two years following the election of Mauricio Macri in Argentina. In addition, I conducted group interviews and observations of several populist groups including an Occupy Wall Street group and Tea Party group in Michigan, and several Kirchnerist groups, including chapters of La Campora, in Buenos Aires. Based on my interviews and observations, I develop a theory of populist socialization. I argue that citizen discourse reinforces elite populist discourse to produce strong populist supporters. First, supporters hear elite populist claims that the media is biased, driving them to look to their political communities for information. Populist groups then bond through sharing negative stories about members of out-groups, thus incentivizing members to find corroborating examples in their daily lives and driving local polarization. These discussions also lead to viewing local political issues through a populist lens, motivating increased political involvement. Overall, these findings suggest that the social capital generated in populist communities leads to both increased democratic mobilization and increased polarization.
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Citation
Meade, Rachel Hyatt,
"The People Against the Elites: Populist Identity in the US and Argentina"
(2019).
Political Science Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/nr0m-df12