Uneke, Okori

English

North Georgia College & State University: Digital Commons

International Social Science Review
Volume 93 | Issue 2 Article 6
Book Review: The Populist Explosion: How the
Great Recession Transformed American and
European Politics by John B. Judis
Okori Uneke
Winston-Salem State University
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/issr
Part of the Anthropology Commons, Communication Commons, Economics Commons,
Geography Commons, International and Area Studies Commons, Political Science Commons, and
the Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Nighthawks Open Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in
International Social Science Review by an authorized editor of Nighthawks Open Institutional Repository.
Recommended Citation
Uneke, Okori () "Book Review: The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics by
John B. Judis," International Social Science Review: Vol. 93 : Iss. 2 , Article 6.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/issr/vol93/iss2/6
Judis, John B. The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and 
European Politics. New York: Columbia Global Reports, 2016. 182 pages. Paperback, 
$12.99. 
The Populist Explosion examines the historic origins of populism in the United States and 
Western Europe and traces their more recent upsurge to the political fallout from the Great 
Recession. The United States has a long history of populist politics and politicians, from 
William Jennings Bryan through Huey Long and George Wallace to Ross Perot and Pat 
Buchanan, the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump. The 
book opens with what populism is and when it emerges. It is a style of politics that sets the 
people and the establishment in conflict or competition. As a political strategy, populism is 
built upon a contrast between the people and a governing elite. For clarity, there is no 
common ideology that clearly specifies the boundary of populism–it can be left-wing or 
right-wing. Similarly, there is no single constituency that comprises “the people”–it can be 
students burdened by loan debt, blue-collar workers or the middle class, just as “the 
establishment” can vary from “money power” to George Wallace’s “pointy-headed 
intellectuals”(p. 15). 
During economic recessions, many middle-and lower-middle class people are 
struggling, panicky, and pessimistic. In times of despair, concerned citizens feel that the major 
political parties have ignored or dismissed their worries, and they respond angrily with their 
ballots. Furthermore, the disruptive forces of technological change, globalization, and 
growing inequality have sparked a surge in populist politics. The rise in populism is a 
signal that the status quo is failing. Populist leaders often emerge during periods of 
prolonged social discontent that provide opportunities to challenge a dominant elite viewed 
as unconcerned about the interest and complaints of the governed. Tapping into growing 
resentments, non-establishment politicians, through campaigns appealing to citizens’ 
disaffection and frustration, as well as using calls for national renewal as a wooing 
platform, have successfully challenged the prevailing policies and institutions. Thus, in 
terms of their significance, populist campaigns became catalysts for political change. 
In The Populist Explosion, John Judis traces populist agitations for political change 
in the United States to the People’s Party in the late nineteenth century. The party called 
for government to regulate and even nationalize industries, like the railroads; to reduce 
economic inequality created by laissez-faire capitalism; and to reduce the power of 
business corporations in influencing election outcomes. The 1920s witnessed economic 
boom and the domination of politics by rugged individualism. But the 1929 stock market 
crash and the subsequent Great Depression, which destroyed the public’s confidence in the 
free market, gave rise to a populist movement “Share Our Wealth Society” formed by Huey 
Long, former Louisiana governor and senator. Long’s campaign greatly influenced 
President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs concerning inequality of wealth and 
power.  In the 1960s, George Wallace of Alabama mobilized a right-wing crusade opposed 
to civil rights legislation. The 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns witnessed populism 
from the left/center-left, championed by Ross Perot, a Texas oil billionaire and the right, 
steered by Pat Buchanan, a former assistant to President Reagan. They railed against free 
trade deals, outsourcing of manufacturing jobs overseas, immigration, and financial 
regulation.  
1
Uneke: Book Review: The Populist Explosion
Published by Nighthawks Open Institutional Repository,
More recently, from the right, the Tea Party movement in 2010 attacked President 
Obama’s stimulus package, mortgage relief, and health care plan passed by Congress. And 
from the left, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) attacked Obama for not moving aggressively 
against Wall Street financial captains that precipitated the Great Recession. Although OWS 
did not have a staying power, it had a symbolic impact in terms of bringing the issue of 
greed and corruption of the 1 percent, as well as growing economic inequality, to the 
attention of the general public. In the 2016 presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders and 
Donald Trump led populist bandwagons. On the left, Sanders attacked the billionaire class 
and proposed universal health care for all and free tuition in public colleges . From the 
right, Trump railed against legal/illegal immigration, Islamic terrorism, corporate taxes, 
presented himself as a voice of the “Silent Majority,” and proposed building a “beautiful” 
wall on the US-Mexico border. While Sanders did not clinch the Democratic Party 
nomination, Trump, against all expectations, won the presidential election. 
The rise of European populism did not begin until the 1970s and began to flourish in 
the 1990s. With the 1973 oil price hike and global overcapacity in key postwar industries, 
economic growth slowed, government revenues declined, unemployment rose, and social 
welfare expenditures sharply increased. Right-wing populists blamed the elite for indulging 
welfare recipients, communists, and immigrants. European populists have either increased 
their numbers in parliament or won elections as heads of governments in several countries, 
including Freedom Party (Austria), People’s Party (Denmark), National Front (France), 
People’s Party (Switzerland), Progress Party (Norway), and the Party for Freedom (the 
Netherlands). Populists expressed grave concerns about immigration, particularly Muslim 
immigration, Islamic terrorism, crime, and religious practices, including the treatment of 
women by certain immigrant groups.  
In the United Kingdom, the Independence Party (UKIP) spearheaded Brexit from 
the European Union in 2016. EU immigration policy was a pivotal issue that energized the 
Yes Campaign. Although the Great Recession did not forcefully hit Northern Europe, right-
wing populism predominated as a bulwark against asylum seekers.  In Southern Europe, 
with unemployment approaching Great Depression levels, coupled with the inability of 
center-left and center-right parties to revive their nation’s hobbled economies, left-wing 
populist parties gained support in Spain (Podemos), Greece (Syriza), and Italy (Five Star 
Movement). They channel their anger against their country’s establishment or against EU 
headquarters in Brussels.  
Judis explores populist movements in the United States and Europe with a detached 
examination of the origins and recent developments in what appears to be emerging political 
trends in populist revolts on both sides of the Atlantic. The book, although short, is a lucid and 
informative examination of populism on both the left and the right. Judis’s writing style is easily 
comprehensible. The Populist Explosion should be recommended reading for comparative 
politics scholars. 
 
 
Okori Uneke, PhD 
Associate Professor of Behavioral Science 
Winston-Salem State University – Winston-Salem, North Carolina 
2
International Social Science Review, Vol. 93, Iss. 2 [], Art. 6
https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/issr/vol93/iss2/6


Book Review: The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics by John B. Judis

https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1237&context=issr

Book Review: The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics by John B. Judis

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

North Georgia College & State University: Digital Commons