Word of the day · 24 May 2026
populism
/ˈpɒpjʊlɪzəm/
noun
A political approach that claims to speak for ordinary people against a corrupt or detached elite.
In a sentence
- The candidate’s populism blamed distant banks for local factory closures.
- Analysts called the tax pitch populism dressed as budget math.
- Historians trace American populism to 19th-century farm movements.
In an image
Origin
From Latin populus (the people), via popular and the -ism ending for a doctrine or style; modern political use grew in the late 1800s and afterward.
History
Populism can lean left or right. What it shares is a story of virtuous majorities blocked by elites, experts or institutions. Scholars treat it as a style of claim-making more than a single policy package. Voters search the term when headlines apply it to campaigns they are trying to decode.
Nearby words
demagogy · anti-elitism · mass politics
Politics framed as the people versus those in charge.