Populism in America: Anti-Elitism and Anti-Pluralism in the United States
Public Deposited- Creator
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Brew, Brian Michael
- College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Political Science
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Brew, Brian Michael
- Abstract
- Populism has become a defining force in the politics of democratic nations the world over in the early 21st century, and the United States is no exception. I define populism as the notion that the government has sold out the ``real” people of a nation in favor of some ``other” group. I define populist rhetoric as that which is both anti-elite -- targeting the government -- and anti-plural -- targeting some ``other.” I further identify three distinct strains of populist rhetoric – governmental, economic, and social – based on the group being assailed. I consider the place and prominence of populism in American politics across the nation’s history. In the late 19th century, both parties used anti-elite and anti-plural cues strategically. In most cases, the party out of power used more populist rhetoric in its efforts to disparage its rival. The party in power used much more populist rhetoric in moments of national crisis. Populism remained a feature of American politics across the 20th century. In the early 21st century, changing political cleavages and a global recession left an immense audience receptive to populist politics. I assess the ways in which Democratic and Republican Senate candidates across eight states used populist rhetoric in their primary campaign messaging in 2022. I find that Republicans used far more social populist rhetoric than Democrats, and that Democrats employed far more economic populist messaging than Republicans. I also find significant variation in how candidates of the same party used populist cues. Finally, I use survey data to consider whether primary voters might use candidates’ populist rhetoric as a heuristic. In primaries where populist rhetoric was a prominent part of the information environment and one candidate used substantially more populist messaging than the others, respondents with more populist views were substantively and significantly more likely to support the most populist candidate. This dissertation sheds light on a timely subject of superlative importance to contemporary American politics.
- Date of publication
- 2025
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
- Advisor
- Treul Roberts, Sarah
- Hetherington, Marc
- Roberts, Jason
- Andrews-Lee, Caitlin
- Globetti, Suzanne
- Degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
- Graduation year
- 2025
- Language
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