Universalist populisms are possible when demands cut across ethnic identities.

Evidence

It is important to realize that an abstract universalism does not have as its only obverse the kind of ethnic populism I have just described. Everything depends on the links composing the equivalential chain, and there is no reason to suppose that they all have to belong to a homogeneous ethnic group. It is perfectly possible to constitute a ‘people’ in such a way that many of the demands of a more global identity are ‘universal’ in their content, and cut across a plurality of ethnic identities. When this happens, the signifiers unifying the equivalential chain will necessarily be more truly empty and less attached to particular communities – ethnic, or of any other type. — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 389

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Ethnopopulism collapses the plebs-populus distinction that general populism requires. — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 385; Internationalist uniformity prevented communist parties from becoming populist. — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 364; A strategic political identity can unite people across skin-color differences — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 244 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• A strategic political identity can unite people across skin-color differences #exemplifies (0.85) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 244