>What's it mean to be a populist then? Isn't the essence of populism
>all about the wisdom of the people and the corruption of their
>leaders?
The answer is very simple, let me illustrate it with a true story.
I was at a meeting a year or so back of community housing representatives. Now where was it? Oh yes, Canberra, God what a sterile ghastly place, the entire city is like an enormous university, dominated by monolithic concrete buildings. Anyhow, the meeting was a national conference of the peak community housing bodies. Housing Associations mostly, as well as housing co-ops. Nearly everyone there was some kind of professional, employed by a state housing peak organisation. As well as a couple of the professionals employed by the national peak, CHFA. Background from their website: http://www.chfa.com.au
As it happens, I never really fit in at these things. I was an actual low income tenant surrounded by people who were all professionals. Not only that, but I must have been pretty near the only person there who was Australian-born. Most were Brits, including Poms, Scots, Irish and the CHFA executive officer was a Yank from New Jersey. Its probably a symptom of Australia's cultural cringe that all these people from overseas manage to secure such jobs, but that's another story. Only the effect is relevant.
Now as is the way of these sort of gatherings, there was some discussion as to how to influence government policy to the advantage of "the sector". After listening to these people waffle on about various lobbying strategies, who was friendly in the upper echelons of the bureaucracy, which politicians would be amenable and what was the best way of approaching them, I suggested that perhaps after all it might be better to appeal directly to the public instead. Never mind sucking up to the powerful, behind closed doors, begging for a few crumbs. Go over their heads. If we had public opinion with us we might have some real influence, rather than appealing to the supposed better nature of the powerful.
The only person at the gathering who agreed with this was the yank. As far as all the Brits were concerned, the whole idea was completely alien. It is obvious this is the only effective strategy, but the idea seemed to terrify those Brits. Now the thing about Yanks is that, basically, they are all populist. It seems to be one of the core values of their culture, they fetishise the will of the people. The Brits are the opposite, they distrust democracy at a very basic level. To the Brits, the ruling elite is looked up to.
I think that's all there is to what it means to be populist, or at least that's the heart of the issue. I would have thought that Australians are a lot closer to the Brits.
The recent constitutional referendum on the question of Australia becoming a republic is also a relevant illustration of this issue. The fact that the Republican referendum was soundly defeated leads Yanks to think that Australians have rejected the populist cultural values which they cherish. But actually it may be the exact opposite. In fact most Australians these days are in favour of a republic, but they want one with a directly elected head of state and obstinately refused to endorse a republic that didn't have that. The reason it wasn't an option is that the political elite is horrified by the idea of a head of state accountable to the people. They want one appointed by them, or in the case of the hard-core conservatives, like John Howard, they refuse to make any concessions to populism at all and want to stick with the monarchy. But he doesn't represent the majority of Australians on that issue.
Anyhow, maybe the defeat of the "Claytons republic" means we have moved closer to the American tradition.
Now I personally think you can take populism to extremes. Electing judges for example, well you might as well call mob lynchings justice and save yourself the public expense of the judges salary. So I guess you could say that I have some reservations about the "wisdom of the people" myself.
But all yanks are populist, pretty much.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas