Peoplehood and Populism: Being Political in Popular Politics

People is not a homogeneous and insulated entity merely acting against elite politics or hegemonic ideological dispensations. Neither it is an empty popular space. Contemporary forms of populism and their ontological construction of political – left, right, and liberal – evoke people as a political domain. Yet the concerning issue in these forms of populism is that the category of people as the empirical domain of politics is contested and segregated along various interest groups and ideological dispensations. To make alternative popular politics possible, one cannot dismiss the pervasiveness of power among the people. There is a need for a social logic that emphasizes common political concerns cutting across differences and ontologically constructs a political community compatible with values of plurality and justice among the people.