UC Santa Barbara

Abstract Should a discussion of populism be concerned with populism—along with revulsion of its various extremisms (perhaps along with hints of social and psychopathology and hence, implicit endorsement of ‘moderate’ positions)? Or should it rather be concerned with the failure of institutions and the misbehavior of elites in a world in which 8 billionaires own as much as half the world population? Option a) will yield a totally different and probably somewhat more predictable discussion than option b), which may include ‘from bad to worse’. According to option c) different types of populism—including ‘pluto-populism’—should generate different treatments. This discussion follows options b) and c).