Is Populism the Savior of Democracy?

• Author: Lemieux, Pierre

In Defense of Populism: Protest and American Democracy

By Donald T. Critchlow

224 pp.; University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020

In his recent book In Defense of Populism, historian Donald Critchlow of Arizona State University presents a fascinating history of the main populist protest movements and their political successes in the United States since the late 19th century. Critchlow defines populism as grassroots, anti-elitist movements that change public policy.

He argues that these "social movements" are necessary for "democratic renewal" by translating popular discontent into government actions. Populism is necessary for democracy but, he notes, democratic change has paradoxically generated "an enlarged bureaucratic government that is further removed from the people."

His argument is interesting but has some weak links.

American populism / Critchlow's story starts with the populism of the last two decades of the 19th century, culminating in the founding of the People's Party (also called the Populist Party). At the federal level, populist ideas included an income tax, antitrust legislation, more regulation of banks, expansion of the money supply, protection of workers and consumers, and federal aid to farmers. State-level populism often called for even more government intervention.

The populist vision might have been, as Critchlow claims, "to employ statist methods as a means of restoring small competitive capitalism," but it certainly called for much government intervention. Most of the populists' demands were fulfilled by subsequent progressives and New Dealers. After the 1912 election, both the Republican and Democratic parties "accepted the construction of the new regulatory state. The era of big government had begun."

By the time of the New Deal, populism had become more clearly socialist. Sen. Huey Long of Louisiana proposed an annual income for every American family. In 1937, supporters of populist Minnesota Gov. Elmer Benson, "known for his blunt, bellicose rhetoric," occupied the State Senate chamber to protest the rejection of the governor's legislative program. At the federal level, the Socialist Workers Party was created in 1933. Often organized or supported by socialist or communist activists, strikes were frequently bloody. The new populists were more radical than Franklin Roosevelt and often turned against him.

Critchlow's definition of populism is very wide, which has both benefits and drawbacks.

Civil rights movement / The next populist period according to Critchlow was the civil rights movement launched in the 1960s. Let's mention that a large part of it can be seen as a libertarian movement. In the South, blacks not only lacked an effective right to vote but, more important, were often deprived of equal rights in their daily lives. White mob violence, often with state governments' approval and even support, was frequent. Juries acquitted white aggressors.

We can conclude from Critchlow's detailed history that...