American Populism Movement

Populism has been defined in several different ways. But essentially populism, in the context of American politics, involves conflict between “the people” and “the elites.” Who the people and who the elites are depends on the ideological perspective of the populist. Typically, populism is a thin-centered ideology, meaning populism resides mostly on the ideological right or the left. In this entry, several definitions will be examined, the historical development of populism in the United States will be briefly traced, reasons for the rise of the new populism will be examined, and two examples will be explained, one from the right (the Tea Party Movement) and one from the left (the Occupy Wall Street Movement).