Populism targets oligarchic corruption, not capitalism or democracy itself

Evidence

Capitalism and representative democracy were never populism’s prime adversaries; oligarchic corruption always was. Populism always remained uneasy about setting up a politics around the capital–labor matrix, and instead preferred oppositions between debtors and creditors, elites and peoples. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 75

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the conventional liberal framing of populism as a threat to liberal democratic institutions; connects to the reader’s interest in how moral panics and elite-politics critiques operate. — connects to: The populist left sought to re-democratize democracy, not abolish capitalism — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 122; Populism can be mobilized either against or in service of the power bloc; Right-wing populism’s anti-finance rhetoric masks its deep integration with financial elites
• SEED: An essay angle: reframing ‘populism as anti-democratic threat’ as itself an elite discourse that populist movements are responding to.

Broader Connections

• The populist left sought to re-democratize democracy, not abolish capitalism #expands (0.90) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 122
• Right-wing populism’s anti-finance rhetoric masks its deep integration with financial elites #qualifies (0.75)
• Populism can be mobilized either against or in service of the power bloc #expands (0.72)