The Roots of Populism: Neoliberalism and Working-Class Lives

(Hardback)

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Does the current wave of populism constitute a threat to or promise for democracy What has led to the emergence of populism and to what extent can populism be shaped into a program of progressive reform of democracy today In this timely new book, Brian Elliott takes a long view on populism, tracing its presence to the seminal struggles waged by the British workers' movement of the nineteenth century to gain general enfranchisement. Since the emergence of neoliberalism in the UK in the early 1980s, he argues, the interests of the working class have become progressively more marginalized within mainstream politics. Years of austerity politics following the financial crash of 2008 deepened popular disenchantment with the political class and paved to the way for the 2016 Brexit referendum result. This has precipitated a crisis of British democracy.

Author Bio

Brian Elliott is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Portland State University