Whose Populism? Locating “the People” in American Populist Politics

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

Today’s populist movements are both a global and American phenomena. While broadly understand as a movement of “the people” against a self-interested and non-responsive elite, populist movements in their specifics can widely vary. Many populist movements are built upon class, racial, ethnic, religious, gender/sexual identities and cleavages; with some groups being incorporated into “the people,” or alternatively defined as the “other.” In the U.S. case, populism has veered Left between the radical, though brief, inclusion of People’s Party of the late 1890s and alto to the Right such as to the white supremacy of the 1920s KKK. Today’s populist movements such as the Occupy Movement, Black Lives Matters movement, the Women’s March, and the so-called “alt-right” - reflect both historical continuity but also important differences in American populism. This panel considers different types of populist movements and the response of those groups most often seen as “the other.” The panel considers how “the other” has responded to populist movements in the U.S. particularly those based on racial or gender/sexuality hierarchy. To that end, the panel explores how alternative populist movements - both historically and today - have been crafted by those considered to be ”the other.”

Sub Unit

• Theme Panel

Chair

• Kimberley S. Johnson New York University

Presenters

• Pei-te Lien University of California Santa Barbara

• Joseph E. Lowndes University of Oregon

• Corrine M. McConnaughy George Washington University

• Lester Kenyatta Spence Johns Hopkins University

• Dara Z. Strolovitch Princeton University