Populists and Realignment: Party Transformation Strategies Past and Future

• In Event: Populism and the American Left

Abstract

Historians and social theorists have for years identified the current era as a new Gilded Age, both on the basis of economic trends --traumatic disruptions to the living standards and hopes of working class Americans reflected in the familiar U-curve of inequality, now at a higher peak than in the early 20th century-- and speculations about political upheaval, a party realignment that may be on the horizon, as predicted by Stephen Skowronek and implicit in today’s discussions about party transformations and the possible 2020 presidential candidates who might lead them.

United States political and policy history are shaped by party regimes, their coalitions and public philosophies. If we are on the verge of a party coalitional and policy transformation, a political “regime change,” what can be learned about coalition alternatives and social movement activism in the first Gilded Age that might help us supersede the second? Can past cycles give insights into future political change and help us anticipate the range of available alternatives for elite-mass interrelationships at the end of this second Gilded Age? The 19th Century Populists moved to transform an existing major party through an alliance with William Jennings Bryan, building an inclusive, economically focused democratic coalition that aimed to guarantee participation rights and work for strong corporate regulation, an income tax, a flexible publicly-controlled monetary system, and broad improvement in the lives of most Americans. What might be the advantages of the original Populist model –of a biracial, gender-inclusive, class-focused reform coalition-- over today’s elite-led identity politics?

Author

• Elizabeth Sanders, Cornell University