What the populists know

Populists may be the only ones who truly understand what democracy really is for, and that is, fundamentally, for expressing dissatisfaction. Elections force leaders to turn to the people and say: How am I doing? — and to accept the people’s verdict if the answer is: Not so great.

For a large swath of the country, the answer has been “not so great” for quite some time. This year, they rendered their verdict.

And I am thankful that they did. In the absence of populism, democracy becomes a competition between groups of elites to divide the people up with maximum efficiency, such as to lower the economic cost of bidding for a majority that will deliver power. Populist revolts of the left- or right-wing variety are the primary mechanism by which the electorate can punish elites for that strategy, and force them to consider the alarming possibility of losing control of the political economy entirely.

That possibility is alarming for good reason. Populism is not really a theory of government or of political economy. It doesn’t prescribe any stable solutions to specific problems, and its relationship to institutions is often hostile. Anybody who understands their stake in society’s institutions rationally fears the uncontrolled effusions of populism, and anybody who looks at the record of actual populists in power has even more rational reason for fear.