As for populists being "dualist" (whatever that means) and "individualists" -- this isn't in true in practice or theory. Populists invented the cooperative movement -- which, as Goodwyn shows, was the "interior architecture" that made the movement so outrageously successful. As for their rhetoric being against "bankers," as opposed to "capitalists" -- many, many radical movements throughout American history of personalized members of the ruling class to make their organizing more effective (Socialists at the turn of the century onwards). That's why they were successful, and it's a strange standard indeed to argue they were somehow reactionary because not every pamphlet railed against the capitalists as a whole. Perhaps the critics mentioned like to do this, but I don't hear about them in the news for movement-building.
So Max, try reading the actual definitive book on populism by Margaret Canovan where she neatly dissects Goodwyn.
Canovan, Margaret. (1981). Populism. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
The Goodwyn book studiously minimizes the negative aspects of populism, or simply argues that once it went to the political right or attacked minority groups it was no longer populism. In addition to the tendency to ignore or attack minority group interests through aggressive majoritarianism, populism tends to cast struggles in dualist and individualist terms; attacking the "banksters" rather than unregulated capital.
See:
Kovel, Joel. (2000). "Beyond Populism." Memo No. 2, To the Greens. Circulated February 2000. Online at http://www.publiceye.org/Sucker_Punch/Kovel.htm.
Or this gem from right wing populism:
Carto, Willis A. (Ed.). (1998 [1982]). Populism vs. Plutocracy: The Universal Struggle. Update of Carto's Profiles in Populism.
See also:
Betz, Hans-Georg. (1994). Radical Right-wing Populism in Western Europe. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Betz, Hans-Georg, and Stefan Immerfall (Eds.). (1998). The New Politics of the Right: Neo-Populist Parties and Movements in Established Democracies. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Federici, Michael P. (1991). The Challenge of Populism: The Rise of Right-Wing Democratism in Postwar America. New York: Praeger.
Fritzsche, Peter. (1990). Rehearsals for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization in Weimar Germany. New York: Oxford University Press.
Germani, Gino. (1978). Authoritarianism, Fascism, and National Populism. New Jersey: Transaction Books.
Harrison, Trevor. (1995). Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Hertzke, Allen D. (1993). Echoes of Discontent: Jesse Jackson, Pat Robertson, and the Resurgence of Populism. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.
Mozzochi, Jonathan, and L. Events Rhinegard. (1991). Rambo, Gnomes and the New World Order: The Emerging Politics of Populism. Portland, OR: Coalition for Human Dignity.
Naurekas, Jim, and Janine Jackson. (1996). "It's the Mexicans, Stupid: The Phony Populism of Pat Buchanan. Extra! (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), May-June, pp. 8-10.
Ramos, Tarso Luís. (1991). "Feint to the Left: The Growing Popularity of Populism." Portland Alliance (Oregon), December, pp. 13, 18.
Riker, William H. (1988 [1982]). Liberalism Against Populism: A Confrontation Between the Theory of Democracy and the Theory of Social Choice. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Saloutos, Theodore (Ed.). (1978). Populism: Reaction or Reform? New York: Robert E. Kieger Publishing Company.
Now, off to fish the lake that made Theodore Dreiser famous.
- -Chip