ABSTRACT
Populism emerged as a form of authoritarian democracy for the Cold War world; one that could adapt the totalitarian version of politics to the post-war hegemony of democratic representation. Populism reformulated fascism to the extent, that, as in the case of Peronism, it became a fully differentiated "ism"; one that was, and is, at the same time rooted in electoral democracy and also displays a tendency to reject democratic diversity. Disputing generic theoretical definitions that reduce populism to a single sentence, the chapter explores the need for returning populism to history, specifically its ambiguous relation with fascism, and especially in Latin America. Fascism is always looming above the past and present history of populism. Peronism, like most post-war examples of Latin American populism, rejected not only dictatorial fascist forms but also high levels of political violence, racism and anti-Semitism, together with war and militarism.
