Populism assumes a homogeneous people betrayed by an elite cabal.

Evidence

Although populism is an elusive label, we see a near-perfect expression of populism as a political style in Trump’s campaign announcement screed against “Mexican rapists” and in his repeated rhetorical appeal to the real Americans: “The only important thing is the unification of the people,” Trump says, “because the other people don’t mean anything.” He has not disassociated himself from a radically exclusionary definition of those people who do mean something. Populism can be defined in precisely these terms—the political assumption that the people are a homogeneous, unified whole and that this “we” is being betrayed by a cabal of elites at home and globally. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 152

Populism can be defined in precisely these terms—the political assumption that the people are a homogeneous, unified whole and that this “we” is being betrayed by a cabal of elites at home and globally. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 152

Categorization

• DEFINE: Articulates the standard definition of populism as antipluralist holism.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 152
• XREF: connects to: New conspiracists are self-styled cognoscenti, not the intuitive people of populism. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 155; Experts’ specialized jargon makes them vulnerable to being cast as a cabal. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 377; Right-wing populism is a struggle between rival elite factions — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2040 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Ruling elites crushed biracial Populism with violence and racial propaganda #exemplifies (0.80) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 906
• Universalist populisms are possible when demands cut across ethnic identities. #qualifies (0.80) — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 389
• Ethnopopulism collapses the plebs-populus distinction that general populism requires. #qualifies (0.80) — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 385
• Ethnopopulism frames elites as colluding with ethnic others to justify hardline measures. #qualifies (0.80) — Erin K. Jenne and Promise Frank Ejiofor, Ethnopopulism and genocidal…, 41
• Right-wing populism blames minorities for a value decay caused by capitalism #qualifies (0.80) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 348
• Populism converts entrenched abstentionism into obstructionist anti-system voting #expands (0.75) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 25
• Populism is a permanent possibility of political structuration, not a deviance #expands (0.75) — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 46