Populism is a very strange phenomenon. It was not unusual in the United States for populist leaders to seem progressive at one moment and then virulently reactionary at a later point. That rootlessness is what I meant when I suggested that populism is usually without any analytical foundation.
Looking at populism from the standpoint of Goodwyn, Lawrence. 1976. Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America (Oxford University Press), you can get an idea of its positive potential. But it is still a relatively dangerous phenomenon. Michael Perelman
