What Is Populism?

This lucid guide is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand leaders such as Trump and Chávez * Guardian *An excellent short book – Timothy Garton Ash * New York Review of Books *In this essential book, Müller defines populism’s most salient characteristics –antielitism, antipluralism, exclusivity – and explains Trump and other populists through that framework. It is a quick read, and worth every page * Washington Post *Populism is not just antiliberal, it is antidemocratic – the permanent shadow of representative politics. That’s Jan-Werner Müller’s argument in this brilliant book. There is no better guide to the populist passions of the present – Ivan Krastev, author of After EuropeNo one has written more insightfully and knowledgeably about Europe’s recent democratic decay than Jan-Werner Müller. His depiction of populism as democracy’s antipluralist, moralistic shadow is masterful – Dani Rodrik, Harvard UniversityAn exceptionally intelligent book about a notoriously slippery, yet essential, political concept. Jan-Werner Müller’s sweeping critique of populism will both instruct and challenge anyone who seeks to understand the roots and nature of the political conflicts that are roiling Europe and the United States – Michael Kazin, author of The Populist Persuasion: An American History

Jan-Werner Müller is Professor of Politics at Princeton University and the author of several books, most recently Contesting Democracy- Political Ideas in Twentieth Century Europe. He contributes regularly to London Review of Books, the Guardian, and the New York Review of Books.