Populism

Does the rise of populisms of both Left and Right varieties constitute a crisis in democracy? Is this a new phenomenon or has there always been a contradictory relationship between capitalism and democracy? How does the erosion of democratic norms relate to other crises in the political economy? Why does the Left seem so incapable of effectively confronting this multitude of challenges?

Michael Bray is Professor of Philosophy at Southwestern University. He joins Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley to discuss democracy in the history of capitalism, populism as a mode of politics, and how to navigate the crisis of representative democracy in the coming decades.

Recommended reading for this episode:
1) Bray, 'Rearticulating Contemporary Populism', Historical Materialism, 23 (2015)
2) Mouffe, For a Left Populism (2019)

Works referenced in this episode included:
1) Stuart Hall's The Great Moving Right Show
2) Hall on Poulantzas' authoritarian statism
3) Jairus Banaji on the incorporation of peasantries into capitalism