Progress as Myth in Populism

ProgressProgress, one of the pillars constituting modernityModernity, has, despite a multiplicity of attacks on its foundations, retained its mythic status to this day, and, besides, recently given populists’ discourses considerable power to persuade the public. This entry, first, explains how it has gained its mythic authority; second, surveys the ways various species of populism draw on it; and, third, introduces two theories which would serve to keep us circumspect.