Was populism a success or failure explain in 6 sentences?

Answer 1

Populism - usually translated as "a political doctrine or movement that supports the interests and ideas of the "common" people against those of what they see as a "privileged elite" - has met with varying degrees of success, so it can't be generalized as either a failure or a success.

Basically failure or success depend on the practical realism and sustainability of populist "anti" policy goals, and it is often the lack of long-term practicality that does many populist movements in.

An example is the populist movement that brought Hugo Chavez to power in Venezuela, but whose policies proved only sustainable as long as high oil prices were there to fund them. In the USA, the Tea Party is a typical populist movement that feeds on a traditional distrust of central government as a matter of principle by many working class citizens. In other countries, in South America and Europe, populist parties have become more mainstream, but even there they can only maintain their popularity as long as they can 'sell' the realism of their goals to their supporters.

So basically populism as an 'anti' movement will be a success as long as there is a strong gut feeling against something, plus the feeling that there is a realistic chance of change. As soon as it is percieved that goals may be unrealistic (or mainsteam politics manage to absorb its ideas in some form) populism tends to lose its appeal.