"In Defense of Populism challenges didactic accounts of populism as either simply expressions of the oppressed demanding that the democratic dream be realized or anxiety-ridden, anti-intellectual, paranoid, anti-democratic reactions to a changing order. Instead, this book submits that grassroots activist movements-populist movements-are essential to American democracy. At decisive points in American politics, social protest movements-whether on the left or the right-force established parties and leaders to bow to reform. In this way, anti-elitist social protest becomes absorbed by established powers. At the same time, the demands for democratic reform become institutionalized in the modern American state, ironically creating an enlarged bureaucratic government that is further removed from the people. This progression from protest to political absorption to institutionalization is evidenced in critical episodes in the American reform tradition. Indeed, American history is replete with these cycles of political disequilibrium followed by stabilization. In arguing for the necessary importance of populism to political reform, this book explores specific episodes in modern American history that reveal the interplay of populist social action and party reform: agrarian populism in the late nineteenth century, anti-corporatism in the Progressive Era, class protest during the New Deal, the struggle for black equality in the early Cold War era, second-wave feminism in the 1970s, and anti-statist New Right protest in the late twentieth century. "--
Covering progressivism in the early twentieth century, the New Deal, civil rights activism, the Reagan Revolution, and the environmental and Tea Party movements, In Defense of Populism argues that grassroots activism is essential to transforming both Democratic and Republican parties into instruments of reform.
Contrary to warnings about the dangers of populism, Donald F. Critchlow argues that grassroots activism is essential to party renewal within a democratic system.
Grassroots activism, presenting a cacophony of voices calling for reform of various sorts without programmatic coherence, is often derided as populist and distrusted by both political parties and voters. But according to Donald T. Critchlow, grassroots movements are actually responsible for political party transformation, both Democratic and Republic, into instruments of reform that reflect the interests, concerns, and anxieties of the electorate.
Contrary to popular discourse warning about the dangers of populism, Critchlow argues that grassroots activism is essential to party renewal within a democratic system. In Defense of Populism examines movements that influenced Republican, Democratic, and third-party politics&;from the Progressives and their influence on Teddy Roosevelt, to New Dealers and FDR, to the civil rights, feminist, and environmental movements and their impact on the Democratic Party, to the Reagan Revolution and the Tea Party. In each case, Critchlow narrates representative biographies of activists, party leaders, and presidents to show how movements become viable calls for reform that get translated into policy positions.
Social tensions and political polarization continue to be prevalent today. Increased social disorder and populist outcry are expected whenever political elites and distant bureaucratic government are challenged. In Defense of Populism shows how, as a result of grassroots activism and political-party reform, policy advances are made, a sense of national confidence is restored, and the belief that American democracy works in the midst of crisis is affirmed.
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