Populism, Racism, Conspiracism, Marxism

Chip Berlet cberlet at igc.org
Sun Nov 21 10:23:32 PST 1999


There are three main bodies of work on populism:

Centrist/extremist theory based on Lipset and Bell etc. sometimes called the pluralist school or classical theory. This stresses the negative aspects and is an elitist response.

The Goodwyn genre, which stresses the positve aspects. I see it as overly romantic and uncritical.

The third, which I follow, was established by Canovan and Kazin, and sees pros and cons.

-Chip

p.s. This is covered in "Challenging Centrist/Extremist Theory" at:

http://www.publiceye.org/study_right.html

You know, I write this stuff so people will read it, and not ask the same questions over and over...

----- Original Message ----- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Sunday, November 21, 1999 12:46 PM Subject: Re: Populism, Racism, Conspiracism, Marxism


> J Cullen wrote:
>
> >given the
> >fairly clear evidence that Goodwyn uncovered in "Democratic Promise."
>
> How controversial is Goodwyn's work? Pro-populists seem to cite him
> as definitive, but is he?
>
> Doug
>



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