Lurching to the right

Populism is back in vogue. Michael Cox looks at two accounts of its rapid rise

The World Today
3 minute READ

What is Populism
Jan-Werner Muller, University of Pennsylvania Press, £13.00

Enough Said. What’s Gone Wrong with the Language of Politics?
Mark Thompson, The Bodley Head, £25.00


It has become one of the new truths of our age that we are now living in a make-believe world where facts count for less than the story you are able to tell. And in such a world where myths and falsehoods have become the staple fare of a new generation of outsider politicians keen to play on people’s fears, the only winners can be populist parties on both the right and left – in the United States as much as in Europe.

Recently Chatham House wrote its own report on the rise of populist extremist parties and how they may be countered – Right Response: Understanding and Countering the Rise of Populist Extremism in Europe.

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